After Expressionism, we talked about Surrealism. The board was pretty full, so excuse the weird angle of the pictures. For Surrealism we talked about Paul Klee (who can also be considered an Expressionist), and Salvador Dali. I would have loved to have gone to the Dali museum in Saint Pete, but it's ridiculously expensive. Asa and I went one Thursday night for discounted admission, but with his work schedule that doesn't work for a family trip. Maybe someday.
Paul Klee was known for experimenting with different materials, so we made glue sun catchers. (I mean, glue is a 'different material' for an art project, right?) For this we needed just a couple of things, some transparencies (I actually used lamination paper, and I cut it in half- so each person had only one sheet, instead of the double 'book-like sheet), glue and paint.
First, we poured the glue out onto the lamination sheets.
Then we dropped and speckled in paint.
Finally you move the paper around to manipulate the glue into a different shape, and the paint goes with it, causing a pretty cool effect.
Then we just let them dry! (It took two days)
Now, in the example I found on Pinterest, they cut out the glue shape, keeping the transparencies attached. But, I was really hoping the glue would dry and peal right off- and I was right!
Then, we hole punched them and tied some string though.
We hung them up, and ta-da! Sun catchers!
A couple of hints- the thicker the glue, the longer it will take to dry, obviously. But, the ones that were thicker stayed more flat, while the thinner ones curled in on themselves. I maybe could have put them between books to flatten them, but the boys liked how they curled, so we left them.
Some times when I find things on Pinterest, you get a picture with no real instructions on how to pull something off- and the link is either broken, in some other language or nothing but a picture. In that case, usually someone has written something in the link to tell you how to do it, but it isn't always reliable. I found these weird birds, and I really wanted to try and pull them off for Dali and Surrealism. Even though I thought this was going to be a Pinterest fail, I decided to give it a go.
We gathered up some empty bottles, foil, masking tape, and guesso. Besides the paint, that's all you need for this.
We got the really long foil, rolled it up tight and stuck it in the bottle. Then we shaped it, adding foil to make heads, wings, or just some bumps to give our animals some texture. You can use tape to secure things at this point.
Then, you take some masking tape and cover the entire bottle.
The directions told us to use paper mache to cover the tape. But, we've done some paper mache projects, and Peyton is not a fan (he hates the mess!), plus I had the guesso from the sculptures we did for Rodin during Post-Impressionism, so I decided to give that a try. Just like with the sculptures, the boys covered the whole thing in guesso. We ended up doing two coats, and you can even add texture by using sponge brushes and dabbing it if you want.
After they were covered, we let them dry overnight.
And then we used just regular old acrylic paint to decorate them.
We did them in different coats too, some followed directions more than others- but they all turned out pretty good.
And you guys, these turned out AMAZING. I LOVE them! Peyton's is less of a bird, and more of a seahorse. We also love Calib's bird with the wide open beak, and I'm totally a fan of the head shape on Hayden's.
Seriously, they're totally cute! And they were easy. My kids really needed minimal help. I basically just made sure everything was wrapped in the tape well, the rest was them. (Oh, and I did paint the eyes on Calib's. He said he was terrible at making eyes, and he didn't want to screw it up).
Next up was Abstract Art Day. We learned about Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock.
And while we haven't themed a whole lot of meals this theme week, we did want to have a nod to the first art movement over here in the states with New York food. (Who knew General Tso's Chicken is an NYC food?!)
There were lots of basic Piet Mondrian activities. But, I wanted to do something a little different. So I picked up some glass paint, along with some very thin black tape. We had the glass jars, so it was a pretty low cost activity. Plus we have SO MUCH glass paint left, so I'm sure I'll find something else to use it on.
Anyway, we taped off some rectangles.
And then we colored them in with the glass paint.
And ta da! They actually don't photograph as awesome as they look.
After that, we had my favorite activity. I gave the boys all plain white shirts my mom had picked up for us (she calls me all the time and tells me she's in Michael's or Joanne's and picks me up whatever I could use on super good sale). Anyway, I told the boys to put on the shirts and some safety goggles Hayden had acquired at his build n grow classes. They were confused, and not very trusting. But, I wanted to keep this one a secret until we got outside. So outside we went and the boys were presented with a paint slip n slide! For this we just needed paint and a slip n slide. Pretty easy.
Our second abstract artist was Jackson Pollock, who was known for 'action painting', which is basically just crazy throwing and splashing of paint. (Sometimes he even used turkey basters!), so we squeezed and splashed out paint onto our canvas (aka the slip n slide). Jackson Pollock would be proud.
And then one at a time, they ran and slid.
And then they had Jackson Pollock inspired shirts.
Now, there isn't any water or anything on here, so they don't slide as if there was water on here, but they do slide a bit.
And the effect is pretty cool.
We would squeeze on a little more paint after each kid.
Peyton, who HATES messy activities took a little convincing (I think we counted down 3-2-1-ready-go, like five times before he went)...
...but he eventually did it, and I was super proud of him. (He was however less than thrilled how long the blue paint remained, even after his shower.)
We told them if they wanted to get the back of their shirts, they could roll around a little. But there was also a lot of paint squirting onto the shirts, and hand prints, and all kinds of other fun, messy stuff.
Hayden and Calib even slid a second time.
Fun story, one of the neighborhood kids is going to be gone the next couple weeks visiting family, so she came to say goodbye, and we were in the middle of this activity. She was like 'well, I guess I won't give anyone hugs good-bye'.
So, the slip n slide rinsed off with the hose on 'jet', but most of the paint remained. The thing was only $6 last summer, so I wasn't too attached. But the boys said it would still work for slipping and sliding, and that we could just call it the 'Jackson Pollock' slip n slide. So, that's what we're doing.
We let them rinse off... and Asa hosed them off.
Then Calib and Peyton went in to shower, while Hayden played on the slip n slide for awhile.
I put the shirts over the chairs to dry. After that you'll want to wash them alone, inside out.
Our last art movement we had actually kind of already covered during our decades week (which was awhile ago, but they all remembered Andy Warhol and his campbell soup cans just fine).
We talked about Roy Lichtenstein and his comic book inspired art, so we took some comics and mod podge-d them to our clip boards.
Pretty self explanatory... .
I however, apparently took no after pictures. They were still drying this morning, but we are ready to trim up our edges and seal it.
The other project was one of those things I thought would be a Pinterest fail, it was sort of an effort to show a silkscreen type process in honor of Andy Warhol (since we had done the Soup Can thing before), but it actually came out ok. For this you need a bucket with water (just two inches deep or so), plain tiles, nailpolish, and some wooden skewers.
You drop in the nailpolish...
And if you want you can use the sticks to make the design a little different. (Hint: don't swirl it, or you'll get an ugly blob of nailpolish- just make a line through it, and move slowly!!)
Then you just take the tile and dip it face down into the water. When you pull it up, it takes the nailpolish with it. And it's awesome.
I'm actually going to spray these with the sealer we have for the clipboards, but I don't know that you have to.
We have a whole bunch of tiles because the boys really liked this project, and wanted to make multiple ones. We also did this on a Saturday when another neighborhood kid was over and he asked if he could stay and do it too. I had more than enough supplies, so I figure the more the merrier.
Fun fact: You might want to wear some dish gloves for this, I had nailpolish all over me from dunking everyone's tiles.
I try and do something a little special on the last day of our theme weeks. For this, we had an art show. I broke down our projects into categories and let the boys each pick one thing to enter (I then gave them ONE bonus entry into any category they chose). Then Asa and I handed out ribbons and points. I thought about printing out some ribbons, but I decided I could just re-use ones from the fair. It was so much less work.
Up first, projects from Renaissance and Baroque.
Hayden's fresco took first, and Calib and Peyton's silhouettes both took second (Asa and I had differing opinions).
Our next entries were from Pointillism and Impressionism.
Peyton put his extra entry in this category, and won first and honorable mention. Hayden's fish took second, and Calib's water/spray paint art took third.
I apparently didn't take a picture with the ribbons for Post-impressionism, but Peyton's sculpture took first, Calib's white monster took second, and Hayden's monster took third. (We couldn't believe that Peyton was the only one to enter his sculpture!)
Calib put his extra entry in Expressionism and Surrealism. He got first on his bird and third on his lion. Peyton got second on his seahorse, and Hayden got an honorable mention on his lion.
Last up we had everything from abstract and pop art.
Hayden used his extra entry here, and got first on his tile, and third on his Mondrian jar. Peyton got second on his clipboard, and Calib got second on his shirt.
Then we let the boys come out of their rooms to see the results. There was a little complaining and discussing, but overall they were pretty happy. We awarded points for each ribbon they got, and there was only 4 points separating them. (It went Peyton-Calib-Hayden- in case you're wondering how overall scores went).
And of course we played Jeopardy. They totally killed it. They named paintings, movements, artists, and random facts. It was impressive. And everyone got their final Jeopardy correct.
Fun fact, after all this Peyton and Hayden split points to buy some Pokemon cards. I ran out to Kohls to pick up my order I placed online (for Calib's birthday), and Peyton came along so we could stop by Target for some cards. He then spent the time in the car with me telling me how great his childhood is, and told me not to worry about everything so much. I wouldn't say I'm freaking out over Calib turning 16, because that's not something I do. But, it is a reminder that time is getting very limited to do all the things I want to do with them, among other things. Anyway, Peyton gave me this whole speech about how great his life is/has been as a pep talk. He sure is a good kid. He also told me how excited he is for our upcoming Disney trip with the return of Celebration weekend, which was lovely, because I feltkind of bad we can't do some other things I had planned so that Disney weekend can happen.
Anyway, in other news, our lily pads are coming along. We still can't transplant them into their water garden home, but I'll post pictures whenever we do.
And our fairy gardens are coming back, and seem to be enjoying the warmer temperatures.
We didn't do a whole lot for our weekend. We're trying to save money for Celebration weekend (so I don't think Florida weekend is happening this month), so we tried to stay close to home. Calib did drive us all to the pool, marking the first time we all rode with him. He's had his permit since March 9th and logged like 10 minutes of driving. This is one sllllllooooooooowwww process.
We did spend the afternoon at the pool, and we had the whole place to ourselves, which was lovely. We also made a trip to adventure island, but my SD card didn't make it back into my camera for that one. I'm hoping we can go again this weekend before people get out of school.
Oh, and Calib's team won their basketball game, they're 2-2, which is much better since they didn't win a game last season.
We watched the Survivor Finale, and Asa made us fries so we could have one more Sur-fry-vor night. (But oh my gosh, disappointing ending!)
And my very generous mom found this AWESOME deal on a refurbished Surface Pro 2, and ordered one for me. It arrived this week, and we are slowly making our way out of the dark ages. Still no desktop though, I'm hoping soon!!
That's it from here. I was interrupted no less than 15 times during this blog, so if it sounds a little disjointed, I apologize.
Next Up: Enjoying our last few weekends with kids in school!
