Posts Tagged ‘classical’

Picasso Art Projects for Kids

Friday, September 16th, 2016

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This post contains affiliate links. I was given access to the class to blog about it, which I was very glad to do.

This is the fifth week of Mixing with the Masters, and we are creating several Picasso art projects. The first is with oil pastels, the second with charcoal (mixed media), and the third with watercolor. Picasso was one of the founders of the Cubist movement, where objects are broken up and reassembled as abstract art. Picasso also invented the collage, where various different materials make up the artwork.

Woman with Cap Oil Pastel

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The first art project for Picasso was a “Woman with Cap” oil pastel. My children enjoyed coloring such bright colors with their oil pastel crayons, and then going back over it with olive oil. Alissa (the art instructor) provides a printable to transfer onto the watercolor paper to enable your young artists to get the bizarre de-constructed shapes. Is this woman looking to the front or to the side? It’s almost an optical illusion.

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I placed the oil in little Asian dipping sauce dishes that my sister got me for Christmas one year.

The Violin Cubist Collage

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This collage was created by gluing old book pages in the shape of the figures in Picasso’s famous “The Violin” collage. The instructional video shows you how to re-create this famous charcoal sketch around the two pieces of book pages.

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My children’s art skills are increasing as Alisha instructs them how to blend and shade this famous artwork. The other charcoal drawing we did in this series was Leonardo da Vinci’s charcoal wing.

I invented my own charcoal and book-page collage. It shows the despair of the soul without Christ, and how His death on the cross bridged the gap to restore our relationship with God and bring us life and joy rather than despair.

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The river is the gulf separating sinners from a holy God. The love of Christ bridged the gap for us by paying for our sin on the cross.

Woman with Yellow Hair Watercolor

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Yes, the woman’s skin is supposed to be purple. Picasso was so weird. One of my sons watercolored this “Woman with Yellow Hair” with light purple arms and face, and another chose to go for the darker purple. We changed the color of the shirt from white to “any other color” to make each of their watercolors unique.

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I hope you enjoyed our Picasso art projects. In next week’s Mixing with the Masters art class, we will be doing Georgia O’Keefe!

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Posted in Art | 6 Comments »

Don’t Study Latin

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

study-latinI grew up speaking Spanish, and because I know Spanish, I automatically know all the Latin root words. Latin is a dead language. It’s dead. Nobody speaks it. With the same amount of time you would use to study Latin, you can learn a language that you can use to communicate with other people. Millions of people, for example, speak Spanish.

At the risk of ticking people off (and the more you’re ticked off, the more it’s probably true), I would like to say that people who study Latin are snobs. Yep. Go on and throw tomatoes. I’m good at dodging.

Look, if you have a classical bent to your homeschool, you’re obviously a thinking person. You’ve chosen the most rigorous style of homeschooling, probably for the sake of your children having a better, higher education than you did. (I myself have a classical bent, since I was a literature major in college and was an English teacher for years. So don’t get mad that I don’t like the classical mind set, because this would not be true.)

All I’m saying is that the study of Latin is dreadfully boring. You’re punishing your children. Are you just checking off the boxes of what you should do for a classical education just to say you did it? Or worse, to boast about your children? Then refer to paragraph 2. (Ouch, that wasn’t a tomato. Keep reading. Maybe you’ll like me after all.)

If you absolutely must study a classical language, choose Greek. At least with the study of Greek you can understand the Word of God better. Plus, the people of Greece actually speak Greek. I’ve been to Greece, and I’ve heard Greek being spoken. It’s definitely a live language. So, you see, I’m not dissing all classical languages, just the ones that have no practical use.

The bottom line is this: our time is precious and limited. Don’t you want the greatest amount of good done in the least amount of time? If you can actually learn the Latin roots while at the same time learning a real live language that is the second language of our country, why not do it?

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