Happy Halloween!

Louise Bourgeois. Spider, 1997

Pumpkins are carved, costumes are ready. We are excited for Halloween! I have a fun class at the Museum tomorrow called, Spooky Spiders. Spiders in art you say?

Well, the first spider in art I saw (that I can remember) was at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City.
My son was terrified! That is the photo above. So, I started to research other spiders in art and here is some of what I found. Who knew?
Kuniyoshi Utagawa,Minamoto no Yorimitsu Battling an Earth Spider (Minamoto no Yorimitsu Tsuchigumo Taiji), c. 1818-1830

Franz Karl Basler-Kopp, Die Schwarze Spinne(1879(1879)–1937(1937)).

Paolo Veronese (1822-1881) - "The reward" Look close to see the spider and web in the hands of figure.

And sometimes a Spider is not so literal, but created through an artists eyes.



Alexander Calder(1898-1976), Spider.

This is at the MoMA. During our whirlwind tour of the MoMA last June I do not recall seeing this particular Calder piece. Maybe I have seen more spiders in art than originally thought!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Stay tuned.

I have a rather large idea that came to me last week and am trying to put the wheels in motion. I think writing this down will be some sort of incentive to make sure the wheels keep moving. I'm not trying to be mysterious, but I am excited. Stay tuned. :)

Right now I need to get busy making monster cupcakes for school tomorrow! Have a creative Day!

Little Dutch Italianates

If you have not been to the museum to check out the new exhibit, you are missing out! The Dutch Italianates: 17th-century Masterpieces from Dulwich Picture Gallery is at the Museum until Jan 3, 2010. These are extraordinary works by Dutch artists that painted Italian landscapes. You might recognize some of the artists, like Pynacker, Cuyp, and Vermeer. Allow yourself plenty of time to take in each painting as there are so many details to see. It's sort of like a game of I spy, which I play with my classes. I spy two boys fishing...I spy a cow... I spy a bridge... they love to play and everyone gets a turn to spy.

I had a hard time coming up with class ideas for this since the paintings are realistic and so detailed. From what I have seen, the toddler and pre-k classes don't seem to enjoy this style of artwork as much as they enjoy the modern art and Chihuly works on the 3rd floor.

What I decided to do was talk about landscapes. We payed special attention in the exhibit to the land, sky and objects in the landscapes which happened to be a lot of animals. The kids loved finding animals and toddlers made the animal sounds and were very pleased with themselves.



In the pre-k class we used watercolors to paint our land first. Ground for our animals to stand on and then a sky for them to look up at. Prior to the class I drew and cut out horses and sheep. They used watercolor pencils to add details to the animals and then glued them to the watercolor landscapes they painted. We added final details and they were finished!



You will need:
-50 lb water color paper
-watercolors
-water and brushes
-watercolor pencils
-glue
-animal shapes



The toddler class was a bit different. We used sponges and tempera paints to create our landscapes. First I gave them green and yellow to sponge their ground. Then I gave them blue to make a sky. We finished with some brown to add trees or mountains..or DIRT, one child yelled. :) We glued our animals on top and finished with an oval mat.

Music to paint by

I love music. I memorize lyrics better than multiplication tables. I like to listen to music while I get ready, cook, drive, run, and especially when I paint. I have been a long time U2 fan (mostly thanks to my sister who listened to them before they were cool) and was lucky enough to go with the most excellent neighbors and friends to this amazing concert. I have just about all the old stuff-except for the album Pop, but I was missing the new one, so I bought No Line On The Horizon and have been painting to it since!

Big Sky

My latest painting titled Big Sky is framed, finished and ready to make big money at my son's school auction tonight!

Roadside Cotton Candy

OVAC's big event 12x12 is long over but I never got around to posting about it. The event was another huge success and I was proud to be part of it once again. There are so many wonderful artists in Oklahoma that want to be in the show and I have been lucky enough to have been invited for the past 6 years. I have also been lucky enough for my piece to sell each year.

This year I did an acrylic titled Roadside Cotton Candy. It was inspired from a trip to Montana that my husband and I took together. It was one of the few trips we were able to make without the boys tagging along. My heart really belongs to the mountains of Colorado but Montana quickly started to win me over with it stillness, wildlife and big sky.

I have been busy in my kitchen studio working away on several projects...I'll keep you posted!

Here is a WIP primed, outlined and ready to be filled with paint!

Warhol Fall

For a day of Drop in Art fun we focused on repetition and color drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol. I had the kids think of one fall item and it had to be something simple enough to draw several times.



These examples have 9 drawings, but they could be done in in any number combination. We used black marker to divide our paper into sections and then we drew that one item in each section. We used oil pastels to fill in the areas. It was fun for the kids and parents to use oil pastels. Many commented on how much they liked them and that they had never used oil pastel before.



You will need:
-white paper any size
-black marker
-pencil (optional to lightly sketch first)
-ruler (optional)
-oil pastels