Supplies Needed:
Construction Paper
Scissors
Hole Punch
Thread (or yarn for younger children)
Sticks
White Glue
This is a great project for older kids who are learning about weight and balance, though, with a little help, younger children can also enjoy creating mobile art.
Gather your materials. Venture outside to collect some sticks. Look for sticks of different lengths but try to choose slim sticks rather than fat ones. Then choose as many or as few colors of construction paper as you wish.Cut out shapes from your construction paper. I chose to make rounded forms but you can cut any shapes you want. You can even cut out fish or birds. Punch a hole at the top of each cut out.
Lay your sticks out in the order you plan to tie them. I made only four levels but Calder’s mobiles could be much larger. Often his mobiles had five or more levels. The more levels you create, the more difficult it will be to balance your mobile. I would not make your mobile much larger than mine.
Tie your sticks together. Leave the threads or yarn a little loose so you can slide them along the sticks if you need to adjust later. Next, tie the shapes to the sticks.
Have an adult help you hang your mobile from the ceiling or in a doorway. Your adult helper can also help you fix the balance of all the parts of your mobile. Start at the top of your mobile and work your way down. Slide the top thread back and forth along the uppermost stick until the stick hangs straight. Dab a little glue on the thread to hold it in place. Do the same for the next stick and then the next until all of your sticks hang horizontally.
Enjoy your mobile as it swings and spins with the air currents in your home.Return to main page.
On another piece of construction paper, trace the top part of your paper plate to create a half circle. Cut out the half circle and glue it to the top of your paper plate.
Cut strips of your other color and use them to decorate the headdress of your mask. 
Next, draw the eyes onto your paper plate. The eye holes should be about the size of a quarter. Have an adult cut out the eye holes. Draw the rest of the features of the face, then trace the lines with your markers.
Glue the sides of the headdress to the back of the plate. Tape a tongue depressor to the bottom of your mask so you can hold the mask over your face. If you choose, decorate the tongue depressor to look like a beard.
He enrolled at the New York School of Art and became interested in painting the grittiest and dirtiest details of American life. There was a group of artists in the early 1900s who painted mainly city scenes that showed the lives of the poor. The artists, members of the Ash Can School, only showed their work together once and, at that time, Bellow’s paintings weren’t included. The term “Ash Can School” is used today for artists who painted in New York City during the early twentieth century and portrayed city life. Above is Cliff Dwelers, below is Men of the Docks and Steaming Streets.
Bellows gained fame when he helped organized a show of city landscapes. His fame grew as he showed his work at judged art shows across the country. As he became a recognized artist, wealthy art lovers began to ask for portraits. Bellow continued to paint city scenes but he also painted many portraits, like the one shown below, Portrait of Emme in Night Light.
When the U.S. became involved in World War I, Bellows deeply and publicly supported the decision. He enlisted at age 35 but was never sent abroad to fight. He used his art to show his passion and began painting war scenes. These paintings are very intense and so I will not show any here.
Besides painting, Bellows helped to spread the art of lithography. A lithograph is a copy of a painting made by applying the painting to a smooth, hard surface, and using certain chemicals to transfer the image to paper. Bellows had a lithography press in his studio and used it to create about 100 images.
By 1470, Botticelli was a master in his own right. People happily paid him to paint masterpieces for them or their churches. He even painted some panels for the Sistine Chapel. 
He also painted many mythological scenes. Look at the Birth of Venus (below). Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was believed to have been born from the sea. By placing her on a seashell, Botticelli shows this in his painting.
Botticelli did not paint as much in his old age and after he died in 1510 he was mostly forgotten. His paintings were not moved from the churches or homes where they were originally placed until much later. He didn’t become popular again until the end of the 1800s but as soon as his paintings were brought to the attention of the public people couldn’t get enough.
Today, the Gettysburg National Military Park is laid out over 18 miles. In your car you can visit many monuments, battle fields, and places that were important during the battle. You can also walk through the cemetery where 6000 people, including veterans of the Civil War, have been laid to rest. It was in the cemetery that Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.
The fields are peaceful today. Even beautiful. Nothing like the scene in Peter Frederick Rothermel’s Pickett’s Charge (shown below).
Notice the canon in the bottom left corner. There are many canons on display in the cemetery and throughout the driving tour, like the one shown below.
Also look at the rock wall stretching from the bottom center of the painting. Those rock walls were still scattered through the fields. The soldiers used them to protect themselves from gun fire.
At first portraits were painted during a person’s life and then, after death, attached to the mummy. Later portraits were only created after a person died.
A portrait was painted on a wood panel and tucked into the wrappings of the mummy. The portrait’s face was lined up with where the person’s real face was.
That’s it for Egyptian art (for now, anyway). Check back tomorrow for something new.
You’ll also notice that the sun is shown in many of the images of the pharaoh. That is the sun god, Aten. He is shown as a disc with many rays. The rays have hands that reach toward the pharaoh, surrounding Akhenaten in warmth and protection. Aten is the only god shown in art of the Amarna Period.
There were, of course, smaller sculptures made for the tombs of other Egyptians, but they weren’t as large or well-finished as those created for the pharaoh.
The Tsar’s wife loved her egg and from then on Alexander III gave her a custom-designed Faberge egg for Easter each year. When Alexander III’s son, Nicholas II, became tsar, he continued the tradition. He had Faberge create eggs for his wife and his mother each year at Easter.
Shown above is the Blue Serpent Egg. Notice the Roman numerals around the upper part of the egg. The serpent’s head points to the time. 
Next is the Azova Egg (above). I love the idea of a ship in an egg. 
Look at the little carriage that came inside the Coronation Egg (above). 
How gorgeous is the Lilies of the Valley Egg? Faberge designed it because he knew the Empress loved lilies of the valley, her favorite jewels were pearls, and her favorite color was pink. Wouldn’t you love someone to design an egg based on your favorite things? I think mine would be made of polished opal nestled in a base of tiger lilies. What would your Faberge egg look like?
The eggs of Peter Carl Faberge are worth millions of dollars. Faberge’s grandson, Theo Faberge, began making eggs in the second half of the 1900s. His were not one of a kind like those of his grandfather. Theo made a few hundred of each of his designs and sold them to the public. Each of his eggs is worth several thousand dollars, far less than Peter Carl Faberge's. Theo’s eggs are not as ornate and do not have as many pieces.
To create a sunken relief, the sculpture carved away the image, leaving the background higher than the picture. An example is shown below.
Egyptians often combined the two styles when decorating tombs and monuments, as in the example below. The pharoahs were done in raised relief and the hieroglyphics around them were done in sunken relief.
When the carving was complete, the wall was whitewashed before the natural, Egyptian paints were added.
Stay tuned for more about Egyptian Art.
When the drawing was perfect, a thin layer of plaster was spread over the area to be painted. It was sanded and smooth until it was shiny. Some of the apprentices would then use cords dipped in red paint to create a grid on the wall. The image was then painted onto the wall in red paint by the apprentices. They had to be careful to paint the figure exactly the way it looked on the papyrus. The master craftsman corrected the pictures in black before the apprentices filled in the figure with colored paints.
Check back tomorrow for the next post in this series on Egyptian art!
