Mommio: Art Class- Impressionists- Cassatt

Today in art class we studied one of the few well known female Impressionists- Mary Cassatt (1844-1926).  

Mary Cassatt grew up in Pennsylvania in a wealthy family that enjoyed traveling overseas.  Mary was exposed to many famous Impressionist artists when she was very young.  Although it was still not acceptable for women to be professional artists during this time, her parents allowed her to begin a formal art study at the age of 15.  Later she moved to Paris where she met Degas and began her own painting career.  Since it was not "proper" for women to be out of their homes on their own in the 1800's, Degas suggested that she focus on painting everyday scenes in the home.  Cassatt took his advice and began to paint informal portraits of women and their children using the Impressionist style of loose brush strokes.  While she was alive she became very famous, being the only woman invited to show her work alongside the other famous Impressionists of her time.  We watched this video gallery of her work today.  

Afterward, I had the kids create a list of common themes they saw in her work.  

Here's what they came up with:

 For our project today the kids painted portraits using their gouache paints.  We have painted portraits many times in this art class, but today's lesson worked a little more on getting the proportion of the face correct.  Here's what the assignment in the book looked like today:

  The kids paired up and began their sketching.

 When they were happy with the face sketch they used the gouache paints to fill in with color
and create a background.

  Here is the finished artwork:

Connor By Avery

 Avery By Connor

 Mason By Marney

 Marney By Mason

 Gabe By Kiki

 Kiki By Gabe

*Our art classes are based on the lessons we find in Artistic Pursuits.  

This one was inspired by Lesson 7 in Grade K-3 Book Three.