Manet Picture Study

We always have fun in school but on our new weekly schedule Thursdays are the most fun! After math, handwriting and geography workbooks we did some narration exercise from Stuart Little, and listened to a show from Classics for Kids. We also had picture study today and our piece was Rose and Tulip, 1883 by 'Edouard Manet. This is a picture of it. Manet painted during the impressionist period where artists such as Monet and Cezanne were primarily interested in the way that light reflected off of objects. This piece is a prime example as it is painted on a dark background. Your eyes are understanding the shape of a vase filled with water by the reflections of the light coming from it. In reality, the vase is clear so you only know its shape by its reflective quality and by the shadows it produces. This is one of the reasons picture study is so important. As you begin to understand what each artist was trying to convey, you began seeing things differently as well. I bet that you will not look at another vase of flowers again without noticing the reflections it produces! (By the way, we are using a book titled Impressionists by Antonia Cunningham. It is filled with pretty good size prints of lots of artists from this period.) Here are the girls copies of this painting that they created on black paper with pastels:

This is Kasey's (7 yo)

And here is Hannah's (8yo)

We also worked on handicrafts today. Kasey added a couple of more colors to her weaving:

And Hannah stitched some more on her ballerina's dress:

Sophia did some counting practice and she is learning her shapes. I cut some out for her to glue to a folder today (Sophie loves to use glue sticks!) Here she is with her creation: