Blogger Award

Look! I have received a blogger award! The person who has recognized my site is a home school mom, Jenny, who writes about her experiences in home schooling. On her site, Little Acorns, home school parents can find some valuable materials such as printable activities and organizational suggestions. There are many shimmering gems of wisdom scattered through her pages. For example, recently she posted about the Dolch Word List which I had never heard of and found quite interesting. I’m not going to tell you what it is if you don’t know because I want you to click through to her great site and check it out.

And so now it is my turn to pass on the award. Of course, I would like to recognize Peter’s site, PHO, which is a daily read that I look forward to each morning. Through his amazing photos (I mean it, some of these photos look professionally retouched. He’s very talented) and incredibly well-researched historical passages, Peter takes his readers on tours of Paris. And who doesn’t like Paris? You’ve probably seen me mention his site before.

Secondly, I would like to recognize Kathy Barbro. She teaches art to kids and on her website, Art Projects for Kids, she writes instructions for some of the projects she does with her students. These projects are all successfully kid-tested and the photos show real students’ results. These projects all look like a lot of fun. I am especially intrigued by the Giant Paper Mache Pencils. Today, I will post about an artist and link to a related project on Kathy’s site.

Thank you again to Jenny for singling out my site for this award. It's great to know that people are reading and enjoy the articles and projects posted here.

Please be sure to read the post below as that is today’s dose of art.

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Wayne Thiebaud

I don’t write about a lot of artists who are still living or even who worked in the last century because I can’t show you images of their work. This is because of copy write law. I fully support the rights of artists to their work and so, even though others online, who may not have permission, have posted copies of copy writed art, I will not. I will, instead, direct you to another site where you can look at the artwork.

Wayne Thiebaud (whose name is pronounced Tee-Bow, just like the Gators’ quarterback), was born in 1920 and is still living. He began his art career as a cartoonist and designer before becoming an artist in the U.S. Navy. In 1960 he became an associate professor and continued to teach students for nearly 20 years.

While he was with the Navy Thiebaud spent time in New York (on leave) and began painting the pastries and other “American” food that he would become known for. He was very interested in creating realistic paintings and he did this by using thick paint in exaggerated colors. When he painted cakes, for example, he applied the paint like a baker would spread frosting. The food in his paintings looks real enough to eat. Go judge for yourself here, here, here, and here.

Thiebaud is sometimes grouped in with the “Pop Artists” because he painting subjects from popular culture (like cakes, gumball machines, and ice cream Sundays) but actually he began his work before the Pop Artists. It is probable that he was an inspiration to the movement.

Thiebaud painted other subjects but it is the delicious looking foods that are his best known pieces. You can create your own masterpiece in the style of Thiebaud. Go to Art Projects for Kids for a great art project.

For those of you home schoolers, check out the National Gallery of Art’s math lesson which uses Thiebaud’s painting Cakes to illustrate fractions.

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Create Your Own Rousseau Jungle

As you read yesterday, Henri Rousseau most liked to paint jungle scenes even though he had never been to a jungle or seen most of the animals up close. Rousseau’s jungles are highly regarded today. You can make your own jungle scene just like Rousseau, regardless of whether you’ve seen a jungle yourself.

Supplies Needed:

Construction paper in green and blue
Magazines (such as landscaping, bird watching, and travel magazines)
Glue stick
Scissors

Gather your materials. Flip through your magazines and cut out pictures of trees, plants, and animals that you think you might find in a jungle. Be sure to get permission before you cut any magazines. Look at some of Rousseau’s paintings, like the ones in this large Rousseau gallery, for inspiration.

Tear a strip of green construction paper to create grass for your jungle. Glue it to the bottom of the blue sheet of paper (the sky).

Arrange your cut out trees and foliage, then add your animals. When you have created a jungle scene of your liking, glue down the magazine cutouts.

If you prefer to create a jungle that doesn’t require any materials, make your own Rousseau jungle online at the National Gallery of Art Kids page. Please note that you will need Adobe Shockwave Player to create an online jungle. It is a quick download but again, get permission before you download anything.



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Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was a French painter, born in 1844. He wanted desperately to belong within the ranks of the traditional French Academy painters but it was not to be.

Rousseau was born to a poor family. His father’s debts even caused the family to lose their home at one point. Rousseau served in the army for four years before going on to become a customs officer at the edge of Paris. He worked until he was 49, painting on the weekends, until he could retire and focus fully on his art. He taught painting lessons, performed as a street musician, and did other odd tasks to earn enough money to live as he painted.

He was completely self-taught and this showed in his work. He wanted to paint flawless, realistic works but a naivety, a simplicity, persisted that he couldn’t shake. The traditionalist painters mocked him but he remained confident in his talent.
Rousseau’s favorite subject was the jungle but he never actually saw a jungle. He based his scenery on the botanical gardens in Paris and the animals were drawn from guide books and zoo pamphlets. Some of his subjects he never saw in three dimensions so his paintings have a flat look to them. Also, Rousseau sometimes grouped together animals that would never be seen together in nature. In one painting, the bananas hang upside down from a tree.

There were some who liked Rousseau’s paintings. For example, Picasso saw one of Rousseau’s paintings being sold on the street as a junk canvas that could be painted over by a serious artist. Picasso bought the painting and then went to meet this ingenious artist.
After his death in 1910, Rousseau began to gain popularity and now his canvases hang in museums around the world.

[The paintings shown above are The Sleeping Gypsy, Surprised!, and Tropical Forest with Monkeys.]

EDITED TO ADD: Create Your Own Rousseau Jungle

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How We See Color

I have gone far too long without posting about how we see color. Color is an important aspect of many forms of art including paintings, sculpture, drawings, and collage. Imagine a painting of a fruit bowl in which the apple is orange, the grapefruit is turquoise, and the orange is burnt sienna. How would you know which piece of fruit was which?

A blob of green paint is not itself green. Sound confusing? We see objects because there is light (from the sun or the moon or from light bulbs) to illuminate them. This is true of color as well. That blob of green paint looks green because it soaks up all the light waves except the ones that ones that are the right length to look green.

Have you ever hung a prism in a window on a sunny day and seen little rainbows bounce on the walls? The prism filters the white light by slowing down the waves and reflecting them in different directions. Some waves are slowed more than others. The slowest (longest) waves look red and the fastest (shortest) waves look violet. That blob of green paint acts kind of like the prism except that instead of releasing all the waves, it absorbs some. The make up of that paint allows it to reflect the green waves and absorb all the others.

Because it is light that allows us to see color, our eyes will blend red with blue if small dots of each color are placed close together. This is the idea that Georges Seurat used when he experimented with pointillism.

Also of possible interest: Paint Your Own Pointillist Picture

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