Painting of the Week

Probably the most superfluous thing I have planned for this year is Art Study. Honestly, it's a bit of an exaggeration to even call it that, mostly I am just putting up paintings each week in a magnetic frame I found at Target. Paintings that we may or may not even talk about. But by goly it took me hours to plan out which paintings to use and if something is going to take me hours it is going to have a fancy name!!

It didn't even have to take hours. My inspiration for this was the book Museum ABC, and the first idea was just to pick one painting of the 4 offered for each letter in that book. That lasted about 10 minutes. Museum ABC is limited to art within the Met, I was not. So I was going to replace a few of the letters in the book with a few favorite paintings. Well, then I started to worry I was going to leave something important out. You know, some artist or work of art that my two year old would be horribly bereft to not be introduced to. Then I became concerned that I was focusing too much on works of certain styles, certain artists. No artist could be repeated! Plus, I just had to have at least one representative from each major style of art.

Then I took some rescue remedy and had a brief reality check.

This is fairly typical of any and all projects that I take on.

So what follows are 26 paintings, one for each letter of the week. It is probably the most well-thought-out list of it's kind.

A is for Apple

Red Apple by Roy Lichtenstien

B is for Boat

The Thames by Andre Derain

C is for Cat

Three Cats by Franz Marc

D is for Dancer

Two Dancers by Edgar Degas

E is for Egg

e- brown_and_white_eggs by brian connelly

Brown and White Eggs by Brian Connelly

F is for Fish

Red Fish by Henry Mattisse

G is for Garden

Vegetable Garden with Donkey by Joan Miro

H is for House

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Grant Wood

I is for Instrument

Guitarra y Mandolina by Pablo Picasso

J is for Jungle

Jungle Sunset by Henry Rousseau

K is for Kiss

Mother’s Kiss by Mary Cassatt

L is for Lion

Lion by Leonardo DaVinci

M is for Mountain

The Mount Saint-Victoire by Paul Cezanne

N is for Nest

Ospreys Nest by Winslow Homer

O is for Ocean

Christ on the Sea of Galilee by Delacroix

P is for Pyramid

Battle of the Pyramids by Watteau

Q is for Queen

Queen Victoria by Thomas Sully

R is for Rose

Roses in a Vase by Renoir

S is for Star

Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh

T is for Tree

The Swing by Fragonard

U is for Umbrella

Sunday Afternoon by George Seurat

V is for Vegitable

Still life with Fruit by Carravaggio

W is for WindMill

Tulip Fields by Claude Monet

X is for Ex

On White by Kandinsky

Y is for Yell

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Z is for ZigZag

The Bridge in 8 Parts by Katsushika Hokusai

I have a lot of plans for future years of art study...I just think its so beneficial to be introduced to fine art. One idea, for an older child, it to focus on one artist each week. This could easily fit into a letter-of-the-week plan as well and there are a ton of art books in libraries (at least in our library). It could be as easy as picking up the book. I've also soon postcard packs with 5 or 6 postcards of different works by an artist. I think Zeke is too young to take in more than one painting a week but I could see an older child really benefiting from seeing a few different pieces done by the same person.