Week-long painting project

We spent all of this past week eating either at our kitchen counter or on the coffee table in the sitting room. Our dining table, far from missing us, has been strewn with painting supplies and projects. We started the week-long process after Calvin expressed interest in the layered look of the art in his book Train Song, by Diane Siebert. All we had on hand to work with was the washable poster paint we've been playing with for years, so no oil paints for this one, but we got out our supplies and covered the table with the wipe-able heat-resistant cover I usually put under the table cloth when we have company. I was worried that our usual art paper wouldn't hold up to so many layers so I cut two sides off a cardboard shipping box, one for each of us, and we sat down to start.

Calvin loved being able to sit down and add something to his art whenever it suited him, and I loved that he spent a week in planning and creating towards one goal.

 We visited our paintings at least once each day the whole week long, even if sometimes just for a few minutes to fix little things. I expected them to be done by Saturday but we had a few finishing touches that we added just this morning, and now we are done. Calvin put more into his than I put into mine, and there were a couple of times that I probably should have let the dishes or the laundry go in order to join him in painting.

It's fun now to look and see bits of the whole week in our paintings, which started as night scenes when we were reading Susan Jeffers's illustrated version of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, were continued with foot prints after we hiked in the field with Crinkleroot, and gained some clouds, and even a little rain in Calvin's case, after yesterday's inclement weather. I enjoy the similarities between our images (both of us included owls like the ones in Jeffers's book) but love even more the differences (Calvin's is flying toward the viewer and is much closer, and he's got such a great house).

This morning, after adding some clouds, we both initialled our work to make it final. Tonight we will eat at our dining table again, but we'll do this again some time, probably sooner rather than later. I kind of liked eating picnic style in the sitting room with a fire lit anyhow.

I am linking this to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic. It's a couple of days late, but art just can't be rushed.

Poetry and painting

We've spent a lot of this week hanging out with Robert Frost. We like Robert Frost, especially Calvin, and being winter it seemed appropriate to spend some time with Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening as illustrated by Susan Jeffers. It has us writing our own poems, and illustrating some New England-esque winter scenes.

Calvin's own

A joint effort (alternating lines)

It's a week long painting project. We're trying our hands at long term planning—painting the background first, letting it dry, adding some scenery details, letting that dry. Dinners at the dining room table are on hold for a while.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake (our review)

I am not, in general, a connoisseur of poetry; I enjoy reading some poetry and have even dabbled in writing it (during my more youthful and visionary years) but I'm not adept at deciphering it. That being said, I think reading poetry—real poetry, not today's children's poems—is a wonderful way to share language with a child. Calvin and I have had some wonderful afternoons sharing poetry while sitting on our front porch watching the birds at our feeders, and sometimes we have read together as a family after dinner. I mentioned last week that we got him Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake for his birthday and since then we have been reading some of the poems from that collection and enjoying the artwork as well. Not all of the poems are really easily grasped by a child of Calvin's age so we haven't done the whole book yet, but we have done quite a few and he has certainly identified some of his favorites, including, of course, The Tyger, and also A Dream, and mostly Laughing Song.

About Laughing Song he says:

[summary] "It's about laughing, of course, and having a good time. And cherries."

[he likes it because of] "the ha ha he!"

A Visit to William Blake's Inn, by Nancy Willard (our review)

This is the book that we got for Calvin for his birthday. It wasn't something we stumbled upon, but pretty much a sure fire hit; not only is this a favorite from Jon's childhood, but we already know that Calvin has a special fondness for poetry, which he and I read together many days after lunch. So we went shopping for this book and a copy of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience on Better World Books and these were our gift to our son for his fourth birthday. They were a big hit, and I'm sure we'll talk again some day about Blake's book, but today here's Calvin's review on A Visit to William Blake's Inn, by Nancy Willard:

[In summary] it's kind of a story about animals and a boy but it's also poems. It has animals in it. It has gentle artwork pictures.

[I like the book] because I like the animals in the story and I like it because it's poems.

[My favorite part is] the King of Cats because I like the cat that's in the poem because he eats lobster and he gets full...bigger...like the moon.

Would he recommend this book to others? A resounding yes.