This Month's Artist - April

Another artist that Mad Murphy has brought to my attention is Dick Frizzell, another pop artist.

He's from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. He brings in to his work icons from Kiwi kitsch. He's described as not just a pop artist but an artist in expressionist pop. This is something I'll be reading up on as I thought the two movements were very different to each other...how has he been described as the two together...? Mass consumerism of expression and emotion?

I always seem to be drawn to pop art yet not sure if I would ever have any on display in my home (maybe the Mickey to Tiki in the middle!) Yet when I paint or draw it’s never in any realist or impressionistic style, it’s always colour, full of pattern, abstract maybe (just read a definition of abstract art: free-hand jazz!). I think Rothko, Klimt and Kadinsky are my inspirations as far as abstract is concerned. I turn to Kahlo for colour. Richard Todd is another artist I like the look of. Maybe he'll feature soon in the monthly artist section.

Moooore Books!!

So instead of buying the rest of the Scotland Street series I need to read, or any other series recommended by friends, I spent the rest of my Birthday Amazon voucher on Art books! I'm eagerly awaiting the call that they've arrived!

My purchases:

    

With my current obsession with her, this is the one I’m really looking forward to:

My recent purchase for school…

…well, OK, for me mostly. Mad Murphy prompted me to look at this; I chose the Modern artists, maybe the other book with 50 not so modern artists will be on my wishlist!



The first page I randomly turned to was Kasimir Malevich, an Russian artist I had never heard of. His first picture shown was his Black Square:



Hubby was questioning why artists paint what appears to be something so bland on the surface. I agreed but mentioned that some artists were making waves, creating a new school of art and were the movers and shakers of their time. They could have been protesting against some other movement or aiming to catch the audience’s attention or to start a new trend. And so it appears that Malevich was doing just so.

"The Black Square of Kazimir Malevich is one of the most famous creations of Russian art in the last century. The first Black Square was painted in 1915 to become the turning point in the development of Russian avant-garde. Black Square against white background became the symbol, the basic element in the system of the art of suprematism, the step into the new art."
Source:http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/04/b2003/hm4_1_30.html)

Taking in the Rye. 1911

Suprematism. 1915

I’ve found a great site for abstract info and inspiration: Abstract Art Framed. It doesn't just cover abstract artists and their work but also inspiration, ideas and tips.

In year 3 we're looking at the abstract artist, Sean Scully. he enjoys working with blocks, lines and colour which is essentially the definition of abstract art. We had a great discussion wondering why his piece 'Catherine' was so called! One boy has taken to the concept of abstract art very quickly and seemed to explain it clearly...he being not so articultae in other areas...something clicked with him!

Beautiful Oops!

(Apologies for the dubious editing in this post...it wasn't playing ball tonight. Not operator error. Honest.)

 

Such a great lesson! Such a good idea! I came across this book by accident, just surfing the Pinterest treasure chest for art inspiration.
 

It's by Barney Salzberg...he's also written other young children's books, 'Animal Kisses' and 'I Love Dogs' .

Already I've had some of the children come to me wanting to start again as they "have made a mistake/done it wrong/don't like it". Unless the project is completely unworkable or right off topic I will always tell them to give it a chance.

I've used the examples of those children to start this lesson with Year 3. I'm doing this with Year 3 as it's their first year in Key Stage 2 and they now have Art with me rather than with their class teacher. They told me they feel nervous as well as excited and that they are worried about making mistakes. PERfect introduction to this book and this session. 

Here's a video of the book. Enjoy!
 


It helps young children to have fun with their mistakes. I gave them a few ripped bits of paper, heaps of scraps and some pens and glue. They set themselves challenges, they even set their classmates challenges. Not one child told me they had no ideas or felt uninspired. Such fresh, unfettered, unrestricted, unassuming minds. I hope that I help them stay so, and as a result I make them feel secure in their art lesson, no fear of making mistakes.

From a scrap of red cellophane

A red squiggly line 

    

A hole ripped in the paper became the mouth

 

 

Happy Birthday Roald Dahl

It's Roald Dahl Day and he would have been 96.

To introduce Roald Dahl to my year 2 class last year and then to have them just grab any opportunity to read his books was a glowing highlight!

'My Book and me'

We finally made it out to see the new book centre/library in Al Khuwair, The directions in 'Y' were pretty good although upon reaching the destination (eventually) I realised it was in Al Khuwair tower, the block with the red writing that I see every time I'm on the highway. So a quick little detour around the streets eventually got us there. (I saw a new home furnishings place incidentally whilst driving around that area. I haven't been for a good, unplanned explore for ages; might have to put that on the to-do list!).

My Book and Me is on the first floor above the medical centre. The library was lovely. Really clean, clear and modern, a nice feeling as you walk in. There were some cute little knick-knacks around and I LOVED the inspirational wall (see photo below). The kids spotted the fish tank straight away. Although Bear made a beeline for the Jeremy Strong books within the first minute. We were the only ones at this time (late morning). There was a little play area with lots of children’s books, Arabic and English. A coffee shop (be careful on the timing…we wanted a cappuccino but the milk had not been sent up!). Plenty of older children’s books, a mix of non-fiction reference books and some fiction for purchase (I checked one price quickly and it was a lot more reasonable that Borders used to be).

I spy Einstein and Curie and Darwin(?). I feel I should recognise more!

 

 

We settled for half an hour, having a flick through a few books. Bear managed to read half a book in that time so we have to go back for her to finish it!

I asked for membership details and it was a lot more than I expected but it would depend on what you wanted to get out of it. There are three levels according to the services you would use.

1. The top level gives you 20% discount on purchases, 50% off courses (half have already been and gone in June so I’m hoping they will release a further schedule) and book loan of a week (I’m assuming 7 days…it doesn’t say).
2. The second level gives 10% discount on purchases, 35% discount on workshops and borrowing time of 3 days.
3. The third level is just a book loan for 3 days.

And you can get monthly or 6-monthly memberships for these levels. A daily pass for adults is 5 rials with internet usage and 3 rials for children. Family packages are 12 rials for 3-4 people and 22 rials for 5-8 people.

Day passes seemed more appealing to me as I don’t think we’d get the benefit of the workshops. However, if we planned well enough I’m sure we could find something that was of interest to the kids. Having said that, the lowest age the children’s workshops were open to was 7 years old. So nothing for Pops. Which is fine, Bear would like to do something on her own, I’m sure.

So yes, we’d go back as I know my own children love books and a library and decent bookshops are what we are lacking here in Muscat. They would happily sit for an hour and read, and so allowing me to read and have a coffee too!

New book centre in Al Khuwair

Just back from Shatti...brunch at D'arcy's (haven't done that in over a year!), a shop in Nick and Friends sale and an ice cream at Gelato for the kids - a lovely Friday. BH is still up Jebel Shams somewhere.

I am definitely in holiday-mode now, it doesn't feel like a Friday as I don't have that heavy feeling that I have to plan for the week ahead. Happy Days! Also planning a get-together for tomorrow before friends head off.

Anyway, the main reason for this post is an article I found in the latest copy of 'Y' magazine.

The article that grabbed my attention was about 'My Book and Me'. Initially I thought that it was a new book shop (much needed here in Muscat) but in actual fact it's a library of sorts catering to adults and children. It's located in Al Khuwair, not far from the ice rink apparently.

What appealed to us - the fact it is a much needed source of books for the kids aside - was that it is described as an educational centre that offeres a range of activities and programmes, not just reading, to all ages. One-day and week-courses are on offer too plus plans to set up a book club too. Like it. I really hope it works. It's based on day-passes or membership packages...I hope this is accessible to everyone.

Mrs. S. and I are going to check it out tomorrow hopefully.