When I saw this post at Chocolate Muffin Tree, I knew it was a project I wanted to do with Bear, but I wondered how I could make it about teaching art appreciation to kids.
I remembered seeing a Robert Bateman book on someone’s coffee table a LONG time ago and, after a quick Google search, discovered he painted quite a few birds.
Robert Bateman is a Canadian naturalist and artist who was born in Toronto, but now lives on the West coast. Although he was a high school art and geography teacher, he spent a lot of time painting. He now has six books of his paintings. His wildlife paintings are just beautiful.
I made some three part cards of Robert Bateman’s bird paintings, which Bear matched up and observed while I washed up the breakfast things.
Art Vocabulary:
realistic
environmental
I’ve mostly shown Bear impressionistic and abstract artists, so this was very different for her. We talked about how his paintings are so realistic they look like photographs. I asked her to think of the theme in all the three part cards. She told me they were all birds. I told her we were going to paint birds today, but ours wouldn’t be so realistic:)
I pulled out three books that fit the theme.
and Flip, Flap, Fly!: A Book for Babies Everywhere
(mostly for J-jo)
Another book that fits well that we read last year and loved is Birds by Kevin Henkes.
Then the making of art began.
More art vocabulary:
print
Chocolate Muffin Tree does a great job explaining how to do this project. I wanted the birds to be bigger, so I modified the method a bit.
Above – J-jo’s branches.
Below – Bear adding a bird with a potato half.
We used the sides of flat sponges dipped in brown paint for the tree branches.
We got a potato and cut it in half. Dipped in paint it made the perfect body for a bird.
We used a water bottle lid for the head of the bird. For the tail, we used the edge of a piece of cardboard, twisting a bit to fan out the tail.
(I helped J-jo with the birds.)
We added a nest, too. That is the best part, of course. We went outside in search of pine straw and found tons.
The finished products:
We’ll have to go back when they are dry and add eyes.
This post also linked to stART
We have been into printing pictues too. We made a fingerprint spring picture.http://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-day-of-spring123i-can-make.htmlWe are planning on more printing fun tomorrow.
Very nice project. We did some fingerprint art this week using Emberly book of fingerprints – it was quite fun.
Thanks for mentioning me and my bird project! Great artist and literary connections! You could also talk about John James Audubon a bird artist!!! Now you've got me thinking!
Loving the bird art projects. I always find great inspiration on your blog. Thanks for introducing me to The Chocolate Muffic Tree blog. I love learning about new fantastic blogs. Or at least new to me. 🙂
Oh Julie, these finished pieces are beautiful. I love them. Hoping you are all doing well! The weather here has been wonderful–hope you are getting some like it too.I checked out a great book from the library just yesterday titled, The Story of the Easter Robin, by Dandi Daley Mackall. It is a sweet book with beautiful illustrations. I think you may like it too.
I really love your blue bird project, so darn cute!
I really love the way you combined the books, art project, and artist study. Perfect time of year to study birds, too! Here's the link to the post where I featured this and your other bird posts: http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/03/28/activit…