Monday 8 May 2017

A Miscellany

Miscellany: A group or collection of different items; a mixture

Here is a mixture of some things that have been going on at our place, mostly to do with art and appreciating what is good, beautiful and true...

We've found some very helpful watercolour videos on YouTube and I've posted some of what Moozle's done below after she watched them. There are oodles of them by the same artist & I've made a playlist of the videos we used. There are various levels but a good one to start with would be this one:











The Fifth Day Sea Creatures by Christopher E. Wade is a welcome addition to the area of children's picture books that 'explores some of the diverse ocean life that God created in the Biblical account of the 5th day of creation.' What is unique about this book is the author's beautiful and painstaking  illustrations. He uses a pointillism technique along with watercolours which he demonstrates on his blog here.
A review of the book is here and there is another book on winged creatures coming...




The American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) isn't a well known artist here in Australia and I possibly would have passed her by if Moozle hadn't shown such an interest in painting flowers. We're using some of her paintings, including those below, for picture study for a few weeks in order for Moozle to take some time 'to see.'

'Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like having a friend takes time.' 

 Petunias, 1924


'When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.'  



Autumn Leaves, Lake George, 1924


'I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.'


The only book I could find on the artist was the children's book below by Mike Venezia, which was written for younger children but it has a good selection of her paintings and Venezia's books are always fun to read.

 


I feel like I've been doing this forever - 1 inch hexagons using the English paper piecing method.




Larger hexagons - one and a half inch - i.e. each edge is 1 inch long - using up scraps. I'll wait until I have a good hundred basted before I attempt to put them together. I'll use tones, light, medium, dark to work out how the pieces will fit together. Moozle is helping me with this.




I use these pre-cut templates









7 comments:

Aflyonmyhomeschoolwall said...

That is a lot of beauty . . . what joy!

Amy Marie said...

I loved Georgia O Keefe - maybe I can convince our picture study gal to do her for our next CM group or maybe I could just enjoy her with my children over summer. I love those quotes! Wow! Thank you for the videos! This is an area I haven't explored well...painting! I struggle with handicrafts with so many ages and littles needing help. Your quilt is going to be GLORIOUS. I love the pieces!!! Wow!

Lark said...

Love the watercolors! :)

Carol said...

I love her idea of making the flower huge so you have to see. I used to take the paints outside when my kids were younger & let them go for it. At least watercolours can be washed/soaked out of clothes. Acrylics just make a mess - not to mention oils.

Carol said...

Watercolours are my favourite medium when it comes to painting. They are much more forgiving than other forms of paint.

Wade, Christopher said...

Carol, thank you for including my book "The Fifth Day Sea Creatures" in your blog post. I really appreciate it.

Having my book mentioned in the same post as Georgia O'Keeffe is a real honor. I have long been a fan of O'Keeffe's work. There is an O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico that I hope to visit with my family soon. She had a very interesting life.

Thank you again!

Carol said...

You're welcome, Chris!I looked up that museum. Looks good :)