Egg yolk paint paintings inspired by Giotto di Bondone

First I had the kids grind colored chalk into a power using a mortar and pestle

Then we mixed in egg yolk  until we had a nice thick but fluid consistency to create paint similar to what the artist used to for his frescoes 

Giotto di Bondone

Watercolor inspired by Picasso's Blue period

I had the kids paint with various shades

of blue 

And I told them a little about the artist 

Danish Woven Heart Ornaments

We decided to add a little cultural heritage to our tree 

this year  and since a part of our lineage is from Denmark we whipped up a bunch of these cute Danish woven heart

ornaments.

First thing you want to do is select to different color felt sheets ,its traditional to

use red and white the colors of the flag of Denmark  but use whatever you like.

Ok so once you have your felt you should make a template

like this one on the left

Next cut a strip of your felt.

Then fold your strip in half

and using your template as a guide trace the shape on your 

felt ,the straight edge should be aligned with the fold not the curved edge.

So then with the felt folded cut along

your marks 

Next with the felt folded cut three slits going from the folded edge

to about an inch from the curved end

Ok so you do that with your two colors

Then its time to weave them together 

First step is take a cut strip  from the white and put it threw the first loop on the red

Next put the red through the white and then the white 

through the red

Repeat the process with the next loop alternating colors in a sort of checkerboard pattern

 do the same with the last loop (white in red,red in white,white in red)

And there you go .

To add the hanging string just thread a needle and push through 

 Cut and tie off.

Still life inspired by Van Gogh

This project was focusing on the type and application of paint that Van Gogh used .
He is said to have used paint so thick he used a knife to spread it on the canvas like clay.
So what we did was add cornstarch to acrylic paint you can also use powdered tempra  and powdered detergent  ,clean up up would be bettet with the later because acrylic will not come out of fabric when set.We ended up with a consistency of soft cream cheese.
So the kids scooped on the paint with brushes
and we went over his technique of brush strokes.
Van Gogh is one of those tragic tortured soul artists so we really didnt go into his life indepth
with these ages of kids. But we did look at examples of his art,and read the highlights
Thats it ,happy painting!

Cave Paintings

We are studying early humans in history,so this
was part of our unit on that.
First I always like to show them the art we will be getting our inspiration from.
So I searched "cave paintings" and we looked at those before we started. The kids were impressed by how skilled some of the ancient artists were.

Ingredients for Art:
One Large paper bag (good for 2 students )
Black and brown paint
Brushes

1)First cut off the large front and back sides of the bag ,so you have to rectangular sheets

2)Then have the child crumple the sheet up

3)Then uncrumple and smooth out the paper

4)Paint

John James Audubon inspired Bird drawings on location

We are fortunate to live in a location with a huge variety of birds ,but any birds in your yard or at the feeder would be artistic fodder .
To learn more about Audubon click here
Also check out the bookAududon Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier

Chalk drawings inspired by Keith Harings subway drawings

-Black poster board
-White chalk
-Examples of his art
- imagination

A great place to find pictures on the internet is      Pinterest just search his name
A little bit about the Artist
Taken from Wikipedia:
Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1958. He was raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, by his mother, Joane Haring, and father, Allen Haring, an engineer and amateur cartoonist. He had three younger sisters, Kay, Karen and Kristen. Haring became interested in drawing and art at a very early age. He studied commercial art from 1976 to 1978 at Pittsburgh's Ivy School of Professional Art but lost interest in commercial art. He moved to New York to study painting. In his junior/senior year, he was behind on credits, because his professors could not give him credit for the very loose art work he was doing with themes of social activism.
(Parental advisor: you may or may not want to keep his bio brief for the kids ,he was an artist ...you know they're quite a bunch ;)