Mommio: Art Class

Today in art class we started the second book in the Artistic Pursuits series.  This book focuses on learning about influential artists and their art.  The first artist we are learning about is Cimabue (1240-1302), who was a very famous Italian painter during the Gothic period.  He was a craftsman who was well known for painting altarpieces on wooden panels in churches.  Cimabue, and other artists during the time, often used gold leaf to decorate their paintings.  One of his most famous works of art using this technique is Madonna Enthroned, with Saints and Angels.

Today the kids tried out adding some gold to their own works of art.  We used our new artist water color sets and brushes, and some gold candy wrappers.  Of course we first had to share our finished tapestries from last week.

 Then on to today's project- first, the kids thought of a subject matter to draw that would include gold (crowns, castles, sun, etc).  They drew these images onto watercolor paper with pencil.

Then they HAD to eat some candy and flatten out the gold wrappers so we would have some gold leaf of our own.

Next, they cut the gold candy wrappers to fit into their drawing and glued them onto the paper in the correct place.

Then- after a little instruction on the proper use of artist's watercolors and brushes- they used the watercolors and new brushes to paint their pictures.

And amazing new works of art have been created!

Next week we learn about Giotto and do some scratch art. Should be fun and messy!