Hidden Talent Art

In choosing how we were going to spend our summer I decided to enroll Jaxon in some summer camps that interested him.  I began my search at Stratford School's Pleasanton location due to the fact that last year he spent the summer at their summer socrates camp.  I knew their classes had structure and were well instructed.  Since Jaxon has recently taken an interest in art when I saw their Hidden Talent Art class listed I knew it would be the perfect fit.  What I did not expect was that Stratford actually brought someone in from a company to teach this class. 

The company is based out of San Jose and after his completion of this course I can say I will have no problem traveling to San Jose for Jaxon to be able to attend classes at The Hidden Talent Art next year.

While attending art camp Jaxon learned about many artist tools such as chalk pastels, ink, charcoal, and paint.  

He learned all different forms of techniques while using these tools by creating two art projects daily.

The progression in Jaxon's ability to take his own creative ideas and apply them on a piece  paper has been absolutely incredible.

 This was a great introduction to art for him and he now looks at art in a whole new light.  I have noticed since taking this class it has given him the ability to look at a piece of art and not only have an understanding of how it was created and with what tools and techniques were used.   But he has now also gained the ability to hold a conversation to discuss all his acquired knowledge. Giving him the ability to have a better understanding of both sides of art.  

Edgar Degas

After our visit to the Legion of Honor to see Monet was so successful, I was eager to return.  This visit would add another impressionist to his education, Edgar Degas.  We introduced Edgar Degas by reading Getting to Know the World's Artists Edgar Degas.  This book series is wonderful for children to read because they speak to a child from the lives and works of the artist while incorporating jokes along the way to keep them interested and entertained.  They are not just a biography but written more along the lines of what the artists vision and talent was that made them such a great artist.

After reading the book and discussing him as an artist we watched Art with Madi and Dada before we began our next project.  Madi and Dada have a series of videos put together for children on many different artists.  During each video they travel back in time and meet the artist in person to a share an adventure together.  Jaxon loves these videos and will even watch them when we are not doing an art project.   Anytime we are learning art history I always check their website to see if I can include a short video.  We then started on our project with a little more knowledge of the artist.  Rose found a great project using Chalk Pastels and focusing on how to draw a ballerina just like Degas.

In preparation of our visit to the museum we sat down as a family and watched The Artist's Special as Seen on HBO Degas and the Dancer. HBO has done an amazing job with their Artist's Special Series.  It captured all of our attention and held our interest through the entire movie.  It was such a great addition to what we have done in the past for art history that I found myself in search of the other five videos in the collection.  So when the time comes to study the other artists we will have them at our fingertips.

For further technique classes we turned to Young Art for a lesson, as we had previously for our Monet study.  When we arrived at young art in the Stoneridge Mall we were greeted by an amazing employee who was very excited to show Jaxon all his choices for a Degas study.  While browsing her cell phone he decided upon a portrait of Edgar Degas.  I left him in her capable hands and returned to this amazing portrait. His techniques have improved so far recently that he absolutely amazes me in his abilities to capture the artwork.

We arrived early at the Legion of Honor with pure excitement.  This was the first time my husband was joining us at the museum.  The Degas, Impressionism and the Paris Millinery Trade exhibit is at the Legion of Honor for a limited time June 24, 2017 to September 24, 2017.  

When we purchased our tickets we included an audio tour to heighten our experience of the current exhibit.  The Legion of Honor's audio tours are always so well done and help to keep us focused on the art work and learn about each individual piece.

Palm Springs Art for all Ages

When I heard about Palm Springs Art for All Ages I was curious to see how they were going to be able to appeal to so many different age groups.  The event is held during the museums Free Second Sundays.  I have visited the museum in the past for adult tours prior to having Jaxon and have always loved my visits to Palm Springs Art Museum.  The Free Second Sundays are possible with the support of H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation.  During this event they also have a pop up studio.  This month the artist who was present was Michael Parker.  

When we first arrived we were asked to pick a country out of a hat, then we had to draw it to fill the dimensions of the board and cut it out.   Of course Jaxon was very interested and thought it was fun.  Then when we returned the board to the booth set up we were explained in further detail that this creation was going to be used by the artist in his next project.  Still slightly perplexed we were led to his exhibit.  

Michael Parker is a sculpture artist who has recently spent months creating a giant arch made of cardboard.  The LA Times wrote an article about his achievement which I found extremely fascinating.  The entire room was full of arches made of all different materials and designs.  He took a 3-D printer and recreated his own sculptures. He then passed them on to friends asking them to make his arches personal.  It was a extremely amazing concept and it allowed my son to see how so many minds can see a piece of art in all different ways.  If you have been following us Jaxon has been struggling with the fact that art's imperfections are what make it so unique and it is a personal creation for ones self.  After browsing the exhibit we returned to the art tables to now create our own arch.  At this point Jaxon looked over at me and said I am so excited I was able to be a part of his next art piece.  I smiled what a feeling for a small child to have that he was trusted to create something that will be included in something so much bigger then he could ever imagine.

On our way out Jaxon saw the artist and asked if he could ask him a question.  As he approached him Michael got down on his knees to be at Jaxon's level.  As a mother that right there completely impressed me not many adults do that.  I wish more adults could take notice of this, you never know the effects a person has on a young child when they share their knowledge and passion of a subject.  The stepping stones you are laying for a child to empower them to be greater then they could ever imagine.  These are the most important moments in life that are so often ignored or pushed aside because their opinions or questions are not of value in an adult world.  So I would like to say Thank you to Michael Parker for making my sons day, week and opened his mind to who knows in the future.

I can Draw Animals

I have always been amazed at my grandmothers ability to paint.  It is something I never took an interest in when I was young and I wish I had.  During her last visit I asked her if she would spend some time with Jax teaching him some basic techniques using the book I can Draw Animals.  Jaxon has always had an interest in art.  Having the opportunity to observe them working together make me wish I could freeze this moment in time.  It's a moment we take for granted when we are young and as adults we all wish we could have captured more of these moments.

Jaxs chose to draw a lizard which he felt represented his relationship with his great grandmother.  During our visits to her house she has gecko's living wild in her house.  Jaxon has always loved watching them climb the walls.  

We spread out the lesson over a duration of three days.  On the second day she taught him what a background was and they painted their backgrounds.  

The last day they painted their geckos.   

While painting their Gecko's Jaxon completely fell apart crying that his painting was not how he expected it to look and it was not good enough.  Now came a greater lesson to be learned,  art is personal.  It is only what you see through our own eyes that matters. "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."  (Joseph Chilton Pearce)  One of the hardest lessons in life is to be happiest with ourselves and to let go of others judgements upon us as individuals.

Introduction to Art

We were lucky enough to be able to take a docent guided tour Introduction to Art while visiting the San Diego Museum of Art.  I say lucky because I have found that it is extremely rare for any art museum to be willing to give a single homeschool family a tour.  

Our Docent was astounding.  She kept Jaxon's attention the entire hour and kept him engaged.  She combined knowledge of history with knowledge of art. 

As they sat together she helped him learn that art was about looking closely at the individual piece in front of you.  By being able to have the confidence to express his own ideas and thoughts while appreciating art.  By teaching him to dissect a piece of art with his own eyes by connecting it to the past, other cultures, and life itself because art is about so many different levels of emotion.  It is opportunities like these that give our children the chance to learn and develop the skills they need to succeed not only in the art world but in life itself.

Who is Monet?

When we discovered Monet's early years was going to be on exhibit at the Legion of honor, we decided to take full advantage of the learning experience.  We discovered, discussed, and expressed our understanding of Impressionism and Claude Monet.  Below I listed a couple of the books that helped us through this process.

 Getting to know the World's greatest Artists: Claude Monet

Linnea in Monet's Garden

After reading our books and discussing we began exploring the technique of impressionism.  Jaxon and his good friend Roro (AKA Rose) my fellow helper in educational fun and all things artsy, sat down and painted their own individual representations of a impressionist style paintings.

We arrived at the Legion of Honor with excitement, this would be Jaxon's first audio tour of any type.

After we finished Monet the early years we set out to find Monet's water lilies located in the main exhibit hall.

The next day we headed to Young Art Lessons at our local mall.  Young Art offers drop off lessons for children on any subject or just art in general.  They were able to teach him how to paint with the techniques of Claude Monet's Impressionism.

Jax's enjoyed the entire lesson and I was quite impressed with the painting that he created during his one hour lesson.