Still Life Paintings

by with No Comment American ArtArtStudent ActivitiesUncategorized

This is the case with the Peale family of Philadelphia and the extraordinary Still Life Paintings they created during the early 18th century.

Food for thought: Why is Still Life painting so popular during periods of national growth and prosperity?

James Peale, younger brother of portrait painter Charles Wilson Peale, is one of the best American miniaturists of the Federal Era, and a fine artist of Still Life painting. As a young man, he enlisted (1776) in the Continental Army and fought in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Princeton, and Monmouth. Three years later, he resigned from his commission, and, in Philadelphia, he started a new career as an artist. James Peale is known for his large, oil portraits, his popularity, over 200, miniature portraits (watercolour on ivory) and his Still Life paintings. He was a popular and well-exhibited artist throughout his life. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.6676.html

Still Life Painting has been a popular genre since antiquity. To quote: “A still life (also known by its French title, nature morte) painting is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as its subject.” From ancient Egypt to Greece, Rome, the Renaissance, Impressionism, Cubism to the Present, Still Life painting evolved reflecting social conditions, changed from realism to abstraction, and never ceased to surprise us with its popularity. https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-still-life-painting-definition/

Post-Revolution… Still Life is a RWAP (Research Writing Art Project) for my Grade 8 class on American Art. For student work… click HERE!

Impressionism and Japonism

by with No Comment ArtImpressionismPowerpointsStudent ActivitiesUncategorizedWorksheets
La Japonaise (Camille Monet in Japanese Costume), 1876, by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 231.8 x 142.3 cm, MFA Boston
Student RAP Project on Impressionism and Japonism
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Claude_Monet-Madame_Monet_en_costume_japonais.jpg

How the West met the East and how Impressionism was influenced by Japanese Art!

My Summative Projects, I call them RWAP (Writing Research Art Project), ask students to focus on 4 parts: 1. Write a well thought Project Title 2. Provide colored copies of at least 2 artworks related to their Project, correctly identified. For the correct identification, I expect them to write the name of the artist (if known), the title of the work, date, medium, and current location, 3. Prepare the required Writing Assignment, 4. Do the Art Assignment which is open to student imagination and creativity.

For the Impressionism and Japonism RWAP Project students are asked to Investigate Impressionism and Japonism, and how the first was influenced by the second. Students are asked to focus on Monet’s painting La Japonaise exhibited in 1876, and attracting a lot of attention, of his wife Camille, dressed in a fine kimono, in front of a background of Japanese Uchiwe fans.

Japonism is the word used to describe the influence of Japanese art on European art and culture. Astounded by the great influence of Japanese art, the French journalist Philippe Burty wrote an article to describe strong European interest for Japanese artworks. The article was published in 1876 and the word Japonism became instantly popular. Students are asked to study the following articles:

https://www.theartstory.org/movement-japonism.htm

La Japonaise (Camille Monet in Japanese Costume), 1876, by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 231.8 x 142.3 cm, MFA Boston
Painted Fans Mounted on a Screen, Early 17th century, Tawaraya Sōtatsu , (Japanese, fl. ca. 1600-1643), Edo period, Color, gold, and silver over gold on paper
H: 170.2 W: 378.5 cm, Freer Gallery of Asian Art, Washington DC s

Impressionism and Japonism: the Activity

Students are further asked to read on Monet’s La Japonaise:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/la-japonaise-camille-monet-in-japanese-costume-33556\

For Painted Fans Mounted on a Screen Read:

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/singleObject.cfm?ObjectNumber=F1900.24

The Writing Assignment for this RWAP on Impressionism and Japonism is to write about: A. A paragraph on fans in Japanese culture and art, the folding fan or the Uchiwa type, B. Why were fans so popular then? Was their use simply practical? How else were fans used by both men and women? Students can write about the use of fans in Japanese or European culture.

For Japanese fans Read:

http://www.fancircleinternational.org/history/japanese-fans/

For student Art Assignment I can only suggest… decorate the pages of your RWAP Sketchbook, like Monet, with Uchiwa fans a or dazzle us with something glitzy like the Edo Screen. Most important… Be imaginative, Creative, Original!!!

For Student Project Worksheet… Click HERE!

For a PP on student Work (Grade 9 ESL students of different levels)… Click HERE!

June in Greece is so hot…, I use a Japanese Fan!!!

"Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain" Activity Bulletin Board Presentation

Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain

by with No Comment Lesson PlansPowerpointsStudent ActivitiesUncategorizedWorksheets
"Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain" Activity Bulletin Board Presentation
“Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain” Activity Bulletin Board Presentation

The end of the Academic year approaches fast and my wonderful Grade 5 students created an inspiring final Poster/Project on “Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain.”

As the Grade 5 Host Country Studies teacher, I thoroughly enjoy exploring, along with my students, various aspects of Greek Cultural Geography! During the last 8 Lessons, we focused on the region of Epirus and its rich cultural heritage. We talked about the region’s geography, history, art, culture, heritage, and mythology. The “Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain” Activity was the Unit’s culminating student challenge. I believe they all passed with flying colors!!!

Enjoy PowerPoints and Student Activity. Bear in mind that it can easily be adapted for whichever Mountain, wherever in the world, you choose to explore!!

The following quote and site will introduce you to the Pindos Mountain National Park. “The park is, for the most part, a large wooded valley encircled by peaks, all over 2000 meters. Almost eighty species of birds live in the Pindos area, including the Imperial, golden, and short-toed eagles, the lanner falcons, the Egyptian vulture, and quite a few species of breeding woodpeckers. This is also one of the areas where bears, wolves, and wild cats are found, as well as red squirrels, wild boar, roe deer, beech martens, and otters (along the streams). A large variety of reptiles, amphibians, and insects complete the picture.”
http://pindosnationalpark.gr/en/

ARCTUROS is a non-profit, non-governmental, environmental organization (NGO) founded in 1992, focusing on the protection of wildlife fauna and natural habitat, in Greece and abroad. The ARCTUROS site greatly helped students find information so as to finish their project. Explore their site… it’s amazing, as amazing is the work they do!

http://www.arcturos.gr/en/

“Wildlife and the Pindos Mountain” Activity 

For a PowerPoint on Epirus and Pindos Mountain… Click HERE!

For Instructions on the Project… Click HERE!

For a PowerPoint on Student Work… Click HERE!

For a DRONE experience over Pindos Mountain and its famous Vickos Gorge… Click HERE!

Enjoy… and think creatively!

Gilgamesh, the Sumerian Hero

by with No Comment ArtLesson PlansMesopotamiaMythologyPowerpointsStudent ActivitiesUncategorizedWorksheets

Could “Gilgamesh, the Sumerian Hero” help you better understand… How do heroes accomplish such amazing feats? Or what turns an ordinary man into a hero? Have you ever wondered if we are all a little bit of a hero? What do great cities like Uruk look like?

The Sumerians, like many people of the Bronze Age (starts about the mid 4th millennium BC to about 1000 BC the latest), had a very spirited oral tradition. There were no books at the time, available for people to enjoy reading and get their imagination run uncontrolled and wild. Storytellers played an important role, getting people excited with stories about the great Heroes, fantastic achievements, strict morals and ethics. Gilgamesh, the Sumerian Hero, never failed to dazzle the Sumerians and he dazzles us today!

Gilgamesh was, the story tells us, one of the kings of the Sumerian city of Uruk.  His name is on the list of kings of Sumer recovered from the library at Nineveh.  Did he exist as a real person or was he just made up by the Sumerians?  We may never know.  Like many other Heroes around the world, he was a part god and part human. He was also endowed with divine powers, a great sense of duty and ethics. Could we call Gilgamesh the first superhero?

Imagine… the unimaginable, and Gilgamesh did it. Along with his faithful friend Enkidu (friendship is always important for a Hero) they traveled the world fighting terrible monsters, rescuing people in need, moving mountains and rivers… in other words, protecting and saving the people of Sumer from any imaginable calamity. How do we know all these amazing facts? Clay tablets, preserved at the Library of ancient Nineveh and written in cuneiform writing, inform us with interesting details!

“Gilgamesh, the Sumerian Hero,” Educational Videos and Interesting PowerPoints

Introduction to Mesopotamia and the Epic story of Gilgamesh
Based on a 4000 year old story the Epic of Gilgamesh, this is an animated comic created by Sean Goodison for his degree project for his final year of studying computer graphic design.

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/story/sto_set.html

https://studylib.net/doc/5237467/gilgamesh—the-first-superhero-

For the PP on “Gilgamesh,” the “teachercurator” prepared… Click HERE!

“Gilgamesh, the Sumerian Hero” and Interesting Student Activities

For Information on Student Activities… Click HERE!

For Student Worksheets… Click HERE!

Vessel with Palm Trees

by with No Comment ArtMesopotamiaPowerpointsStudent ActivitiesUncategorized

A small Bronze Age Vessel with Palm Trees became the focal point of my interest and a simple yet creative Activity. It was love at first sight!

While visiting the “Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures from Saudi Arabia” Exhibition, a small 5,000-year-old Chlorite Vessel decorated with Palm Trees caught my eye. I was at the Benaki Museum in Athens and I was stunned and intrigued. So much so that I began searching and thus a journey started to an island in the Persian Gulf, called Tarout. The journey revealed a Near Eastern island site where creativity, imagination, craftsmanship, and trade, throughout the ancient Near East, from Syria to the Indus Valley, reigned supreme!

The Palm Tree decoration used by the Tarout artists became an “interlude” kind of Activity for many of my classes. I used the PP and the Worksheets I prepared with my Grade 3 students when aspects of the Bronze Age were discussed and with Grade 6 Social Studies students while we explored the Indus River Valley trade routes. It gives me a chance to examine along with my students, how ideas, artistic endeavors, and goods “traveled” around the world, influenced people and created connections and relations.

For valuable information, please check…

https://alaintruong2014.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/725.jpg

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.106/

For my PP in Vessel with Palm Trees in Bronze Age Art… Check HERE!

“Artists and designers are always looking for inspiration, and what better place to find it than an art museum’s encyclopedic collections of great treasures.” Realizing how important this is, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collaborates with establishing artists and designers “to create a range of art-inspired products, from T-shirts and fragrances to jewelry and bags.” Check out this Observer article and check my Worksheets … HERE! … get inspired to create your own Palm Tree artwork!

The Next Big Thing in Design Inspiration Is Museum Collections

Palm Trees and a Student Activity

For the “Vessel with Palm Trees” Activity I use the recommended PP and the Worksheets I created. Photocopy them, and if you wish, enlarge them, so as students have more space to work on. Show students the prepared PP, then discuss how the Palm Tree is used as a decorative motif by the artists of the Bronze Age in the Near East and in Minoan Crete as well.

Show students how designer Kendall Conrad was inspired by the LACMA chlorite handled weight. “This artwork first caught my eye because it was in the shape of a bag, but the carved image is what I fell in love with,” she said.