Art Lesson

A conversation at bedtime..

Jr. : Daddy I forgot the name of that famous Italian painter..

me : Michaelangelo?

Jr. : No. Not him. The other guy.

me : Da Vinci

Jr. : hmmm .. does he have a longer name?

me : Leonardo Da Vinci

Jr. : Yes. Him. (and goes on to tell me about some painting of his I havent heard of)

Me : do you know one of his most famous paintings?

Little one : Tell me.

Me : Mona Lisa.

Jr. : Is this the one which is a picture of the lady staring at you?

Me : Yes. it is the one where she kind of looks sad and happy at the same time...

LO : Daddy, I know. She is also holding a fruit in her hand.. that one.

Me : (Intrigued by this as the LO is the one that is going to be an artist if ever one came out of this house..) You sure? I have looked at the Mona Lisa so many times, but didnt know she had a fruit in her hand. Always looked at her face and eyes. Will go google it and see if she has a fruit in her hand..

LO : Why do you have to google it? That picture is there on your bedroom wall, isn't it!

Me : (literally rolling on the ground laughing.. seriously I fell off the bed)

That is Raja Ravi Varma's painting called "Lady with Fruit"!

Time to teach the kids some basic "Famous Paintings 101" or take them to the local Museum in SFO!

Finished Bangles

San is sick and that meant engaging the kids "quietly". When faced with such challenges, daddy always capitualates to doing whatever the kids want in order to satisfy the "quietness spec".

We finished the Banlges project in a little under 2 hours. 

Here is the final result in HDR..

It is sunny outside but downright chilly to the point where we might be starting serial art projects today.

Here is to a happy Deepavali to everyone!

My darling daughters, may Art, Math and Science light up your life the way the diwali lights and firecrakers light up dark and cold November nights! 

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!

When engineers try art..

Volunteering at daughters school for the Art program this year. Today was the first class from the masters to the wannabe art instructors.

It was interesting. The only downside was a two hour delay going to work and that made work way too hectic.

At first there was a short introduction to the artist and his particular type of art. Then all the parent volunteers were given an hour to try the concept themselves.

Our work then went up on the wall for the kids to see.

The artist ? Henri Mattisse
The art type ? gouaches découpés (painting with scissors)

No pencils were allowed. We were given a glue stick, some scissors and a range of colored paper.

We had to cut shapes and stick them on the paper to create art.

Some of the parents who are doing this for the third or fourth time came up with really good work.

This was daddy narayanan's first attempt..

It did get a few looks and positive comments for the rainbow concept. Some parents did point out that the rainbow colors were not in VIBGYOR order and I beat the ability to circle the ring behind the saturn to death by putting way too many saturns.

Told them that it was artistic license!

For more on the amazing Henri, please go to this page that is a great resource on the man and his art! 

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Art makes an entry

Decided to buy the kids some art material (Drawing/Painting paper), paints, color pencils (the whole thing was less than 10 bucks) and let them have some fun this week.

It has been a busy week with me going out of control trying to juggle work, sinus problems and the kids.

The materials were a good idea. As an added bonus we are now decorating the shelves in the garage with the kid's art work. Kind of their own showcase to show their friends and visitors how they are doing.

We never realized how good the little one was with a paint brush. As a rule of thumb two things have been banned inside the house for as long as we can remember

a. water/oil paints
b. china clay (playdough)

for fear of ruining the carpet or floor.

That ban has been lifted now. The kids will be allowed to paint from now on instead of just draw with crayons.

The parenting learning goes on..

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