Klimt Study, Part 2

In honor of this week's artist study I drank coffee out of my Klimt mug with its orange-y "The Kiss" every morning. You can see our artist shelf above. When we begin a new artist study I cut out or print pictures of the artist's work to put on the walls and put out books about our featured artist. At the library this summer I happened upon a picture book about Klimt, Klimt and His Cat by Bernice Capatti. I picked it up again a week before we started this study. Perfect for the fine young gents, Klimt and His Cat is charming, Klimt's story told from the viewpoint of his cat. I asked the lovely ladies to read it to the fine young gents in the afternoons just for fun. I requested another child-friendly Klimt book from the library, Silver, Gold and Precious Stones: Adventures in Art, for the lovely ladies. This is a beautiful, beautiful book. I wish we owned it. I saw the kids looking at it throughout the week, and I read it out loud to them while they worked on their collages.

Before we actually create our own art, we look at the artist's work, read about their life and art, discuss what we see in the paintings. That sounds so...rigid, is the word that comes to mind, but it's really not like that. Picture us sitting on the couch, or showing off a favorite painting at the table, or the kids reading a book together. I used this Kinderart lesson plan as a jumping off point, for materials and a loose idea of what direction we'd like to go, and we made some Klimt-ish art. The lovely thing about the lesson plan was that I was able to use it nearly as written for the young gents, and adapt it for the two young ladies-- simplify for the non-interested artist whose only requirement was that she create something with the material, and intensify it for the artist-in-residence.

Lovely lady, the elder. She struggled with the idea of creating patterns, of imitating. As she helped set out the supplies, I asked her to try to imitate Klimt's art as closely as she could, not because I want to squelch her creativity (no chance of that!). Rather, I wanted to give her the experience of working within specific boundaries to find out what it might be like to create different kinds of art. I want to challenge her, move her a little out of her comfort zone, and paradoxically that means in this instance, asking her to imitate. Pattern and even a semblance of symmetry was difficult for this free-form young lady who's accustomed to going with the flow. The end value of this exercise? She learned a lot about how she sees art, what's comfortable for her, and what's not. And she likes what she created. Her next step is to create a Klimt-like painting on canvas. We're both kind of excited about the idea.

Lovely lady of the rolling eyes, the "Do I have to do this dumb project?" artist. The answer is "Yes. Now sit down and create! And have fun while you do it" Just kidding. I am waiting for the day, however, when she finally realizes that once she starts a project she usually enjoys it. She's got fine motor and attention difficulties, not uncommon in children with autism. I think years of being around kids who can draw and write better than she can, along with a very short attention span, has made art a not very motivating activity for her. All I ask of her is that she join us and make an effort to keep from huffing and puffing. I love her picture. It looks lovely on the bulletin board with the others. They're all so different even though the kids were given the same materials and directions.

Fine young gent, 5. He's got an eye for patterns in art. This wiggly young guy sees far more while he's wiggling away than he lets on. Actually, he loves to look at art books with his big sister. And he notices the finer points of what he sees. He wasn't very excited about the whole glue and shapes thing. But he really did get the idea of using repeating shapes to create patterns. He spent quite a long time on his picture.

His younger brother (3) impressed me, even though we lost his picture. His only real requirement was that he stay quiet while I read and not throw anything on the floor. He spent quite a while on his picture too, carefully sorting through the shapes to find just the right ones. He created suns and flowers, then drew huge spirals over the whole thing.

Another piece by the eldest young lady, just playing with the materials. In addition to her project we did an exercise in looking at art thoughtfully, just for fun. She enjoyed looking at Klimt's work, but she prefers the later more colorful pieces to the gold mosaic-style. She chose a potrait she really liked and spent some time just looking-- this piece, Portrait of Mäda Primavesi, really caught her eye. I asked her to think about the painting in the same way that we look at the poetry: 1. Just look. 2. Look again. Jot down whatever she notices. Patterns, lack of pattern? Color? Mood? How did the painting affect her personally? 3. Write down at least three questions that she has as she views the piece. Interesting-- as an artist, she had questions that wouldn't have occurred to me. We had a wonderful discussion of Klimt's beautiful portraits, the way that the girl is standing in the painting we looked at, the colors and seemingly intentional vagueness of the surroundings. I love this job.

Jackson Pollock and Action Painting here.