Draw Klimts Tree of Life

Greetings Parents!

Welcome to Mini Monets! I would like to start by saying thank you to everyone who voted Mini Monets Favorite Art Class in Wilmington Parent Magazine. It is such an honor to be recognized, and I am beyond grateful for the young artists and families I have worked with over the past 8 years.

I am so excited that you have decided to encourage your children's love of art by enrolling them in my program. They will be experiencing a program unlike anything else they have been exposed to in school. We will work in a variety of mediums in teacher guided and student directed projects. This year I have included more emphasis on the foundations of literature, math, and science within my art program. Many students are visual learners and Mini Monets is a great way to get exposure to other elements of education while creating art. Our projects will begin with introductions using videos, books, or posters and I have a tablet on hand so that the artists will be able to see online galleries and view paintings in more detail.

We started off the year with a video titled "Trees" by Educational Videos for Kids. It's an awesome video that uses an animated Earth to talk about why trees are so important, from their roots holding ground together, photosynthesis with carbon dioxide and oxygen, to how trees help filter the air and control the climate. Then, we pulled out a dry erase board and started talking about the 3 main types of lines, Straight (a line that continues to move only in one direction), Curve (a wondering, circling line), and Zig Zag (the line who stops on a point and then changes direction). We took turn drawing lines before starting to draw our trees. I encouraged the artists to think about the different lines and use them to create their trees. As we began our drawing, we talked about the life cycle of a tree, parts of a tree, and what a tree needs to grow from a tiny seed. After they were finished drawing, I passed around brown paint and they began to outline or fill in their trees with brown paint. At the end of the class, I began to readsome of Klimt and His Cat by Shannon White.

For the second class, I continued reading from Klimt and His Cat. I read about his love and feelings of inspiration from viewing Roman Mosaics in Italy. He was so inspired by the repeating shapes that he meticulously recreated the look in most of his paintings. I showed the artists a sample of the mosaics on display at the Getty Museum to compare with the ornate details in his painting, Tree of Life (1905). I wanted to focus on his use of line for creating branches. We discussed how this does not look like a real tree, but an imaginary tree since he used curved lines and swirls for branches. He repeatedly painted geometric shapes in this painting, such as circles, ovals, square, rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how geometric shapes have rules like triangles have 3 sides or the 4 sides of a square have to be the same length.

Since many of Klimt's paintings included gold paint, I gave the students gold, bronze, and silver metallic sharpies to draw repeating geometric shapes on their trees or in the background. They could also continue drawing the different types of lines on the trees or backgrounds too. After they finished drawing, I gave out gold metallic paint and red, blue, and green glitter paint. I urged all artists to paint in their shapes and add as much color to their paintings as possible.

The objective of this project is to identify the lines, colors, and shapes in works of art. Next week, we will create a fall still life after viewing the works of Paul Cezanne.

I hope everyone received his or her welcome letter this week. I am including it again in this email.

Sincerely,

Jennie Wenk

Policies and Procedures for Mini Monets, LLC

• Tuition is $50 per month, regardless of 3, 4, or 5 classes. Tuition is due at the first class of the month, and any time after is subject to a $5 late fee.
• If tuition is not received by the second class of the month, the artist will not be able to return until tuition plus $5 late fee is received
• There is a $25 service fee for a returned check
• Should a class need to be cancelled, a make up class will be scheduled at the earliest convenience or during the dates listed below.
• There will be no classes held Nov 19 – 23, Dec 20 – Jan 4, and April 15 – April19, or at any time your child's school is closed due to another holiday, workday or inclement weather.
• Mini Monets takes photos of artist's and their masterpieces. Please let me know if you would not like your artist posted on our website, minimonetsart.com, or social media: facebook.com/minimonets. instagram@minimonetsart. twitter@minimonetsart. tumblr@minimonetsart.

I am looking forward to classes this week and if you have any questions please feel free to call either 910-399-1708 (home), 843-6964611 (cell), or to email me, minimonets@gmail.com.

I'm looking forward to another amazing year!

Jennie Wenk

Creator, Mini Monets, LLC

gagneaget1996.blogspot.com

Source: https://minimonetsart.com/2018/10/27/gustav-klimt-and-tree-of-life/

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