Friday, January 13, 2012

Time is (not) Monet

Winter is here. Lots of fluffy snow to the tune of cold temps. The kids are outside playing. I'm betting they will last about 10 minutes.=)


Yesterday we had art class. This is such a stretch for me, being such a Monet, and all that.=) We did still life paintings. They turned out surprisingly well. We used two of my ceramic jars for models. First we drew the outline very lightly in pencil. We then traced that in crayon, and added other detail. The cool thing about crayon is that is gives a solid edge, and the watercolor paint doesn't stick to it. So your outline becomes a picture that you "paint in." The key is not to do too much crayon-just the outline. I said that phrase several times yesterday.=) Then we picked out colors and mixed colors and started painting. That was the fun part. The kids are getting better at the whole brushing motion, in contrast to the scrubbing motion. Each painting was unique, but all were very cool. They dried, and now I have to add them to our basement hanging art gallery. Currently I am taping them to our bifold closet doors. But I did recently see a really neat idea that I might try. It utilizes narrow wood strips, thumb tacks and tiny clips. There is always more artwork to display than places to display artwork. This new idea would maximize hanging space. Anyway, I really enjoyed myself. And I felt like I was fulfilling several of my resolutions.=)  Plus I didn't flip out over spilled paint or dropped paint brushes. Progress on many fronts.=)






Starting to apply paint


proud artists





Not Georg Flegel, but okay for a first try

Our willing models


Today we started part 2 of our Lives of the Presidents timeline. Andrew Johnson was an interesting president. He overcame great odds to rise to the highest office in our land. And he is infamous as being one of only two of our presidents to be impeached. We also have a yeast, sugar and water concoction fermenting on the stove in a plastic bottle. The gases are inflating the balloon covering the mouth of the bottle. A good week of school completed.



The newest science experiment. Its working.


She is a big flash squinter.
And she looks as cute in stripes as polka dots.
Meredith is up  on her hands and knees a lot these days. She is rocking back and forth, what the kids and Brian have termed her booty dance. She is also not the happiest camper-she is teething. You can see the bumps, but no teeth yet. Poor baby.


They made it 20 minutes. I was wrong.=)