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Entries in art (2)

Wednesday
Dec162009

Stick figures

For Christmas last year we got Calvin an easel, a present that has seen plenty of use and love the whole year through (as attested to by the multitude of paint splatters and occasionally misplaced stickers).  Calvin's favorite medium has been paint, which he uses in an abstract style that brings a vibrant touch of color to the play room, where I have several of his pieces hanging for daily enjoyment. I like the abstract feel.

Lately, though, Calvin has branched out into the wide world of crayons. After spending some time at the easel by himself one evening last week he was upstairs reading books with Jon before bed while I straightened up a bit downstairs. That's when I stumbled across the stick figures. I was so excited to find something, that even remotely resembled something other than tumble weed, that I ran upstairs, new art in hand, to ask Calvin what he's drawn. He told me all about the eyes, ears. mouths, and bodies he had drawn.

"They're garbage men" he told me.

Thursday
Nov262009

Thanksgiving crafts

We've been busy with our paints, stamps, papers and glue gun this week. Crafts, like baking, are a favorite part of the holidays for me, and now that Calvin is old enough to really take part it's kind of like a license to go crazy. I think the handprint turkey is my favorite. I've been wanting to do that one since the kid was born.

I'm not the greatest artist myself, but a quick Google image search for Thanksgiving coloring pages produced a number of iconographic salutes to run off for more Crayola usage. We colored these, then I used two of them as starting points to make larger outline drawings of a turkey and a cornucopia on newsprint, which we promptly painted over, some of us more thickly than others. I love the smell of art room paint almost as much as that of paste, and it's a good thing, too.

Our felt counting turkey, complete with song (think something like Five Little Speckled Frogs, only with turkey feathers and, oh nevermind).

And the Thanksgiving icons we made to go with Calvin's Thanksgiving book (the one I reviewed a bit here). I did most of the cutting on these guys, and all of the glue gun handling, but Calvin helped stick some of the pieces together. (In case you're wondering, that's a harvest moon...)