art masterpiece: seurat and ruebens

With the school year coming to an end so, is the art masterpiece volunteer program. I am sad for it to end. It has been a really great experience this year and has even lead to a new opportunity that I will talk more about soon. Here are the two works of art we talked about in May.

Seine at La Grande Jatte by George Seurat

1. About the Artist
   George Seurat (SuRah) was born in Paris in 1859. He died when he was only 31 years old. He had 1 brother and 1 sister. He went to art school and got interested in scientific color theory.
   
   
2. What do you see in the painting? boats, person, tree, grass. What is on the opposite bank? building or mansion. How many people and boats do you see?
   
   
3. What does it look like close-up? Far away? Explained how close up you can see all the texture and individual colors and you move further away the colors blend to show the full picture.
   
   
4. Do you see any dots on this painting? This painting style is called Pointillism. Dot-to-dot painting is called pointillism. Creating tiny dots of specifics colors next to each other allowed the viewer to blend the color with their eyes. Imagine you were a painter and you create your paintings only with dots, At first it may be fun but after awhile you may get bored … drive you crazy …
   
   
5. How long do you think it took to make a painting using only dots? Just 1 painting took 1-2 years to finish. This one took 23 drawings and 38 painting sessions. He would study very carefully and spend months doing sketches to figure out how many dots it would take to fill the canvas before he started painting.
   
   
6. Let’s talk about the texture in this painting. First he would paint the canvas white and then squeezed dots straight from the paint tube. That would leave little raised areas on the canvas.
   
   
7. How does this painting make you feel? Many said relaxed, calm, want to be there.

Helene Fourment with Her Children by Peter Paul Ruebens

1. About the Artist
   Peter Paul Ruebens was born in Germany in 1577. Very popular artist. He was rich and famous. He painted Kings & Queens but he also painted children. He loved children.
   
   
2. What do you see in the painting? Do you think he knew the people in the painting? Who are they? The painting is of Helene, his second wife and 2 of their children. Daughter Clara and son Frans. They had 5 children together. He also had 3 children from his first marriage.
   
   
3. How many children did the artist have? 8 - My first math related question to the kids and they enjoyed this.
   
   
4. How old does his wife look? Helene was 21 years old when this was painted. She married Peter Paul when she was 16 years old.
   
   
5. Do you think this painting is finished? Why not? Something’s are detailed (faces, hands) and others have no details (background, chair).
   
   
6. Let’s talk about the texture and shadows in this painting. This painting was made on wood with oil paints. This painting style is called Baroque. Baroque is a religious paintings that are realistic, easy to understand and show emotional reactions. Baroque shows contrast of light and shadows.
   
   
7. How do you think the artist felt when he painted this picture? Do you think the artist loved the people in this painting? The looks on their faces, the emotion, natural looks of love.
   
   
8. This artist painted more than 1,000 paintings! He was able to do this because he had hired artists to help him finish his paintings. He was very popular and having help was the only way he could finish them all.

Both kindergarten classes thanked me and showed me their appreciation in their own heart warming ways.

Mrs. O's class made a book of drawings with their favorite work of art we saw this year. I couldn't beleieve some of the kids remebered one that they saw early in the year. So cool.

Mrs. B's class (Ethan's class) had an ice cream social at school for all the parent volunteers and gifted us ice cream scoops. It was really cute and the kids were super excited.

My son's class had 9 parent volunteers this year that helped out with various classroom needs. Isn't that great? I don't know what a typical class has since this is my eldest son's first year but, to me, it seems pretty wonderful and I am so grateful for it.