Channelling the Masters

For the most part, homeschooling was torture for me. And for the kids. Except for the art lessons. Oh, how I loved those. The kids were learning all about line and movement and shape...as well as about some of the greatest artists in history and their techniques.

After we learned about portraits and self-portraits, one of their assignments was to make their own self-portraits. Dylan's:

And Sadie's:

We learned about Hokusai - the way he made art is fascinating. Like stamping, but upside-down. I love, love, love this work by him - The Great Wave Off Kanagawa:

One of the kids' assignments was to make a piece of art that imitates Hokusai's use of lines to show movement. Here are the results - Dylan's:

And Sadie's:

Then we studied Joan Miro, who was really into using shapes and bright, bright color. This is one of his works called The Tilled Field:

The kids' assignment was to make a work of art that imitates Miro's use of enclosed shapes, bright colors, and bold, defined lines. Dylan's work:

And Sadie's:

I'm a little sad that these art lessons are over; it was so fun learning more about art and great artists. I'm impressed with what they did.

And, lest you think that Micah was left out, here is photographic evidence that he was in on the creativity:

Dylan and Sadie don't really fit into the role of emotionally tortured artists, per se...

But Micah...oh yeah. He's an emotionally tortured artist. For sure:

He's seriously messed up. He's liable to cut off an ear one of these days...