Today was Arts and Music day.  So after Math and LA studies, we listened to a little bit of George Frederic Handel and did a really fun art project.  Towards the beginning of the year we did a study on Mary Cassatt mostly using books from the library, including our favorite by Mike Venezia, Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists - Mary Cassatt.  Venezia has many books on artists and composers, they are excellent, especially for those with kids with short attention spans!  So, today, I looked up Mary Cassatt in Discovering Great Arists, another book I highly recommend; and the project they had was to make tempera monoprints.

Monoprints are made by painting a picture on a flat tray, and then pressing paper on top of the wet paint to make a print of the image.  In our project, we used cookie trays and tempera paint.

My son, most of the time wants nothing to do with art, so Hannah and I had fun with this while he took other creative avenues (LEGOS!).  Hannah painted a picture of a piano, bench, and music notes (her hinting to me as to what she wants!).  I, in honor of our recent winged encounter, painted a Pileated Woodpecker.

I think the key with this project is the balance of paint and pressure that you apply when making the print.  Hannah and I loved this project, and she continued with doing two others while I tended to lunch!

-Too Little Paint-

-Much Better-