Category Archives: Art
The Poetry of Walls
Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings that Wiggle Like a Fish
Isaacson takes the reader on a leisurely, respectful tour of buildings around the world: churches, houses, museums, lighthouses, all kinds of structures, from the humble to the magnificent. In simple, straightforward prose he discusses various architectural concepts such as the impact of building materials, the interplay of light and color, and the significance of roof shape. His stunning photographs turn even the roughest earthen hut into a work of art. His lyrical text helps us see in the pictures what we might otherwise have missed:
“These buildings are part of the Shaker Village at Sabbathday, Maine. On an afternoon in late winter they are warm and creamy, but in December, shadows thrown at them make them look haunted. A building only a few yards away fades into the land on a hazy morning.”
Isaacson is also the author of A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art
Tags: children’s literature, kidlit, children’s books, books
The Unicorn Tapestries
For this month’s picture study, we’re doing something a bit different. I thought it might be fun to take a close look at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s famous Unicorn Tapestries. These spectacular late-fifteenth-century tapestries are on view at The Cloisters, the Met’s uptown collection of medieval European artwork. Designed in Paris and woven in Brussels and the Netherlands, the seven large wall hangings vividly depict the hunting of a white unicorn in a richly flowered wood. The gorgeous weavings are rich in symbolism and drama—there are at least three layers of meaning to explore here. In addition to the excitement of the hunt, complete with lanky greyhounds, odd-looking lions, and a smiling stag, there are the symbolic interpretations of the story:
“They can also be explained as a tale of courtly love, presenting the search and eventual capture of the lover-bridegroom by his adored lady. And there is the Christian interpretation as well, the symbolic retelling of Christ’s suffering, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.”
The Met’s Unicorn Tapestries website is loaded with information and pictures. If, like my family, you can’t venture to NYC to view these incredible weavings in person, a long exploration of the website will be the next best thing.
Related links:
• New Yorker article, “Capturing the Unicorn: How Two Mathematicians Came to the Aid of the Met.”
• Another set of tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn, on display at the Musée National du Moyen Âge in Paris.
• Wikipedia entry on unicorns
• Children’s books about weaving
• The Cloisters—field trip info (Go ahead, make us jealous!)
Unicorns in children’s literature:
The Last Battle
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
The Unicorn Treasury : Stories, Poems, and Unicorn Lore
Illustrator Interview
Cynthia Leitich Smitch‘s blog features an interview with illustrator Sara Rojo Pérez today. I enjoyed reading about Pérez’s favorite books and artists.
Feast Your Eyes and Ears
A smorgasbord of links to share:
Hone your note-reading skills with this free online drill at MusicTheory.com. (Hat tip: MacBeth.)
Explore free art lessons at the Getty Museum (Hat tip: Tabatha Yeatts. Thanks for sending the link, Tabatha!)
Interested in Australia? Here’s a great list of picture books from Down Under!
The Headmistress treats us to several sites featuring free audio recordings of literature and children’s programming, including this terrific find: Librivox, at which site you may listen to a long list of unabridged classics including Pride and Prejudice, Pilgrim’s Progress, A Little Princess, Notes from the Underground, and Call of the Wild.
And speaking of audio, Farm School‘s Becky has the scoop on audio recordings of poetry.
This Month’s Artist
The Ambleside Online folks are studying Vermeer.
Over at 4 Real Learning, they’re getting to know Winslow Homer.
But here in the Bonny Glen, we’ve just begun a book on American history which begins with the Vikings. And the Vikings put us in the mood for some Norse myths. And those, coming on the heels of all the Jan Brett stories we read during Advent, have us spinning our globe to Scandinavia on a daily basis, which is a perfect excuse for me to indulge in a month-long celebration of one of my favorite painters: Sweden’s Carl Larsson.
Here are some Larsson paintings:
Flowers on the Windowsill
Crayfishing
The Yard and the Wash-house
But here’s the one I love the best. Turn the clock back just a couple of years, and these little girls are mine. There’s Jane, lost in a reverie at the dresser when she’s supposed to be getting dressed; Rose, defiantly not dressed and with that look in her eye that dares you to do something about it; and baby Beanie, bemused by the layers and folds of clothing in which she finds (or almost loses) herself. You can tell this picture was painted by a father.
Neat Idea
Some folks in Illinois have come up with something new: a “homeschool-along.” Sounds similar to the kind of group artist and composer studies that take place at Ambleside Online and 4 Real Learning. From the Homeschool-Along site:
A monthly topic will be picked and we will all homeschool along. The first topic is China/Chinese in honor of Chinese New Year. Anytime you do something about the topic or find something cool about the topic, share it right here.
HT: Andrea at Atypical Homeschool.
More on Picture Study
What do you do with your poet and painter of the month? Do you introduce one new work a week? One a day? Who chooses the featured artist and do you have a grand plan?
Our approach to art appreciation is very, very simple. We look at paintings and sculptures, and we talk about them. That’s really it. Jane and I might discuss (briefly) the historical context of the artist—what time and place he or she was from, what else was going on in the world, that sort of thing. It’s informal and conversational.
Many of our encounters with artists have been “accidental,” chosen by chance. When we were reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
We chat about the paintings and sculptures. The girls are full of opinions and speculative background stories. Beanie especially likes to ponder what’s going on in the picture. About the Manet piece I posted the other day, she wondered why the mother isn’t watching the little girl—nor reading her book—nor petting her dog. “Maybe she isn’t the mommy,” she mused. “She could be a big sister.” Big sisters, apparently, are cut more slack when it comes to gazing off into space. Mothers, I gather, are supposed to pay attention.
This month it was I who chose Manet (rather than Manet who chose us, as has so often happened), primarily because some friends at 4 Real Learning are studying Manet this month, and the task of tracking down links to his paintings had already been done for me by someone else. (Thanks, Amy!)
In this casual manner, my family becomes acquainted with a new artist every month or two—during the indoor months of the year, that is. We seldom seem to spend much time poring over paintings during swimming-pool season.
I don’t have a master plan or a schedule, though I do harbor a fantasy (as yet unrealized) of purchasing a nice framed print of one painting from each artist we encounter in our family rambles. For now I make do with postcards and computer print-outs. My hope is that the kids will grow up enjoying art, enjoying talking about art, enjoying thinking about how an artist’s work reflects—or does not reflect—his cultural and historical context. I love the spark of connection when one of the children recognizes a print somewhere. “Mommy, that’s a Van Gogh!”
Karen Andreola mentions that important connection moment in this article on picture study:
…first and foremost we want our children to really “connect” with the artist’s work.
Here lies the difficulty. The grown-up who arranges the lesson is an all-important middleman, but like other middlemen, you must be lost in the background. Many pictures make their own independent appeal. Your must judge when a helping word is needed, or when—as it is especially the case with older children—too much speaking or too much enthusiasm may raise a barrier.
I completely agree: really the only mistake I can make here is to get in the way. So I try simply to put great works of art in the children’s path and then—quick—jump out of the road. But I’m here to listen to opinions (and they have many) and to provide access to more of what anyone wants to explore. I suppose Beanie’s reaction to Manet’s Railway painting establishes my role pretty clearly: all I have to do is pay attention.
Our January Painter
Edouard Manet, 1832-1883
The Railway, 1869
Speaking of Art
Some of the folks at 4RealLearning have launched a new monthly artist study. This month’s painter is Manet.