Art

One of the things that I am liking a lot about the kid's school...a nice balance for yesterdays irritated post, is the art program. They take it seriously here. For the eldest, every week they have something called Mira...which means to look. They go off to some darkened room, and the teacher puts up one slide of a piece of art from somewhere...and they look at it and discuss it for half an hour as a group. Then there are the art classes themselves, which seem to be happening on a theme basis in conjunction with the classroom teacher. A while ago I posted about this artist...the sculptor, Giacometti, and I also posted this link to some of his work from the Museum of Modern Art . After that, the kids all had to do sketches, really life drawing with the clothing on, of the teacher in various poses. Then they had to chose one and work it up...and this was followed by the creation of a sculpture in the style of Giacommetti. They used wire to make the basic form, and them tinfoil to beef it out, then coated it with plaster of paris, and painted it. They are very good.

Now the eldest is off on a field trip to the Miro Museum, lucky dog, and they are looking at SCULPTURE! Don't you love it! I think it is just fabulous the way they are tying it all together. If you want to see what she was looking at, click on the link, and then obviously English, follow up with exhibitions, and then temporary exhibitions. If I can find the piece of paper I will figure out who the artists are as the site doesn't seem to say. So happy about this. I am going to ask around and see if we can find someone to give the kids drawing and painting lessons, although sculpture would be welcome too. I don't want some 'oh, let's all draw today..." kind of class though. I am looking for someone to provide some rigorous technique and critique. They love to draw, that is established, and they are to my doting eyes, reasonably skilled, but to take it to the next level, they need better technique...I have a couple of leads. The advantage of a smaller place...you get to know who is who.

Ooo, I found out who the artists are...Claes Oldenburg and Cosje van Bruggen. The site that the link holds has lots of information, but the images are kinda small... this site provides more depth.

I've been studying Catalan relentlessly today, we got a new book, by Andrew Yates, that CLEARLY defines the grammar in ENGLISH! That is what I needed. Many things are becoming transparent, now to memorise....the book is Teach yourself Catalan, what a surprising name, but it is good. We didn't get the CD that goes with it, but I have a couple of Catalan's around I can copy for the correct pronunciation.

I should manage.