Greatest Artists Series: Rembrandt

Today we learned about our next artist, Rembrandt. We read this volume of Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists Series, and then we watched the dvd of the same title. (If you've never read any of our other reviews, we love these books written for kids. I'm not sure what ages they are geared for, but my 3, 5, and 10 year olds all pay attention to them.) There is always a little bit additional/different information in the book and video so it's great to include both. And the video greatly reinforces what we read. Previously, we've done Cassatt, Warhol, Monet, and Matisse.

It occurred to me that I couldn't think of Rembrandt's first name. Well, this is why: his name is actually Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.

These are the things I told the kids to remember about Rembrandt:

1) He lived in the 1600's, long before the other artists we have studied, so far.

2) He often painted scenes from the Bible.

3) He is known for painting portraits. He painted many portraits of himself, more than most artists ever do. This is helpful, as there were no cameras at this time.

4) He lived in Holland.

5) His paintings were known for his amazing use of light on dark. Dark paintings were common during this time,which is like most of his work. He could paint light shining in on his subject, making it look impressively life-like.

6) Although he is mostly known for painting portraits and Biblical themes, he also drew some landscapes, often including windmills.

Since Rembrandt was from Holland, and windmills were sometimes seen in his paintings, the kids made some of their own. I sent the kids around the house looking for empty toilet paper rolls while I printed off these patterns from DLTK.

The past few weeks, Sissy has improved considerably with her coloring. Before, she would just scribble a bit here and there. Now she really fills everything in.

The boys cut out their own pieces, and I cut out Sissy's. They glued their colored rectangles around the toilet paper roll, along with their windows and door. I helped them attach the blades with a brad. From left to right: Dash's, Tornado's, and Sissy's.

This is the first week for the Mommy's Little Artist linky,

hosted by Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams.

Consider sharing any art or craft project done by your kids of any age!

I'm also joining the moms at ABC and 123 for Show and Tell!

Warhol Week

We rented the Andy Warhol DVD episode of the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series from the library. They have several different artists; we also picked up Monet, which we'll do next. The kids really loved watching it. I did, too. It's 24 minutes long and completely entertaining. It was full of fun facts about Warhol, such as his name was originally Warhola. It was spelled incorrectly in a publication, and he liked it and kept it. The video is full of examples of his work, and it teaches viewers about pop art. The kids have watched it 3 or 4 times.

I found this Andy Warhol Pop Mag activity guide online, and we printed it off and went through it together. Tornado and Dash each had their own copies, and Sissy drew on a title page while they were busy at work. Fun stuff. They had to complete such activities as designing a shoe (because Warhol drew a lot of shoes as a commercial artist) and listing what they would put in their own time capsule (based on Warhol's own Time Capsule project). Tornado wrote "comics, hidden pictures, animals (his stuffed animals he has lined up on his bed), and puzzles." They also really enjoyed cutting out and gluing the "stickers" of things that might be found in Andy's studio, The Factory.
Another activity - I made copies of their photos, first using the coloring book option on my photo editor. They picked a few colors they wanted to focus on, and I have to say, they worked really hard on their pictures. This was an idea I had long ago ripped out of a 2004 issue of Pack-O-Fun magazine. We mounted them on card stock. I think they look great!

The video mentioned a method Warhol used to "create." He painted a picture, then covered with another sheet and pressed down (something like that). Tornado requested we try it. I folded a sheet of sketchbook paper, and after they painted on one side, they folded it over and pressed down. Even Sissy loved doing this.

the completed works of art

Another picture of them showing of their art...I'm particularly endeared to Dash's shirt tucked into his underwear and shorts. :) What I am also endeared to is the way Dash goes around talking about "Andy Warhol," just as clear as can be. He throws his name into conversation, or may ask something like, "Daddy, do you know about Andy Warhol?" He always really gets into studying about people in history.

I noticed Journey into Unschooling had this fun activity on her blog. We'll have to try that one next!