The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola is the story of a boy who loves to draw. He goes to school, excited to begin art class, and finds that his art teacher expects the students to copy her drawings off the board. Tommy wants to be creative! He wants to use his brand new birthday crayons, not the powdery school paints! You’ll have to read the story to find out how Tommy deals with this problem.

This story is somewhat autobiographical. Tomie dePaola is, of course, an author and illustrator of children’s books. It’s inspiring to read the story of a boy who grows up to do exactly what he always wanted to do.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves to draw.

I’d love to hear your opinions about this book. Please feel free to leave comments.

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Museum History

Awhile back I read a book that talked about the way museums have changed over the centuries. I was thinking about how differently museums are set up today than they were in the 1700s. I found it interesting and thought I would share the information with you.

Before the 1800s, museums were places where wealthy people could go to look at art. These wealthy people thought of workers as dirty and noisy. They certainly didn’t want dirty, noisy people ruining their trips to the museum. Because of this, museums were only open when workers would be working. They also had dress codes that made sure that workers wouldn’t be able to afford the right clothing to visit.

Paintings were hung from floor to ceiling, in no particular order. There were no identification cards to give visitors information about the paintings. Even if a worker were somehow able to visit a museum, he would have no idea what he was looking at.

In 1803, the King of France decided that everyone should be able to visit museums. He wanted museums to help educate people. On his orders, the Louvre stopped enforcing its dress code and changed its hours so that workers could visit. The museum also began to arrange its artwork into exhibits which included informational cards. At first, the paintings were arranged into only four categories: Dutch, French, Flemish, and Italian. Over time the exhibits became more and more specific.

Today, paintings are hung only at eye level and every painting has its own informational card. Sometimes you can receive more information about a painting by listening to an audio tour. Many museums even offer guided tours. There are often events and activities designed to help kids understand the artwork they see. Museums truly do try to educate their visitors about art.

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Create Your Own Fine Art Puzzle

Here is another use for those old calendar pictures. If you don’t have any old calendars you can print a picture from the internet. You could also use a photo (just make sure to get permission first!).

Supplies Needed:

Picture
Poster board
Glue stick
Scissors
Decorative-edged scissors (optional)
Spread glue over every inch of your picture and stick it to your piece of poster board. If you feel that your puzzle is still too thin, glue a second sheet of poster board to the back.
Use either your decorative-edged scissors or your regular scissors to cut the picture into pieces. I’ve given you examples of both. A third option is to trace the pieces of a puzzle that you already have. If you choose to do this, make sure your puzzles are the same size before you start. Also, trace the pieces onto the back so your pencil marks don’t show on the picture.
Enjoy your new puzzle!

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Van Gogh X-Ray

I know I should talk about the Olympics opening ceremony but I didn’t see much of it. Yes, I am ashamed of myself for not watching. Not to worry, though—my mom caught it on her DVR so I will get to see it. I hope you all enjoyed that display of art and culture.

I did, however, see that amazing Men’s 4X100 Meter Free Style Relay. If you missed it, go watch it. It was a nail-biter!

Okay, let’s get to the art…

As you may know, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime. His brother, Theo, paid for his housing and food, and his paints and canvases. But van Gogh never had enough canvases for the paintings he wanted to create. Because of this, van Gogh sometimes painted over older paintings when he didn’t have blank canvases.
It was possible to tell which paintings had been created on top of other pictures, but experts hadn’t figured out to see and recreate the older images. Until now. A group of scientists has used a new x-ray method to find a hidden picture behind a Vincent van Gogh painting.

In late-1884 and early-1885, van Gogh painted a series of small portraits which showed the heads of Dutch peasants in their huts. The paintings are very dark, like much of van Gogh’s early work. The scientists found one of these paintings hidden behind a painting van Gogh created in 1887, Patch of Grass.

This is pretty amazing technology. You can see the uncovered image, and read about how the scientists did it, here.

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The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt

From now on (actually from last week on), Fridays will be book review days here at Art Smarts 4 Kids. If you have read the book, please feel free to comment on whether you liked or disliked it (but please be nice).

Today’s book is The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt. This is a beautiful picture book that is a perfect read-aloud bedtime story.

Julie lives in Paris with her mother, a painter. She wishes she had a garden so her mother decides to take her to visit Claude Monet in his garden outside the city. They take a train to Monet’s huge garden and Julie is taken for a tour by the artist, himself.

The illustrations were inspired by Monet’s paintings but Anholt has put some of his own style into the pictures.

The book is based on a story about the daughter of Berthe Morisot. I have not yet written about Morisot, but I will tell you about her and her art next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

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