Butterfly Weed, Orange Milkweed, Pleurisy root

Orange Milkweed- 

Jane- gel pens

A quick drawing for Lori's Mandarin Orange Monday

what better way to really see the flower and its parts....

Butterfly Weed,  Asclepias tuberosa L.

This orange-yellow perennial blooms in late spring, dying back in winter and returning from the underground tuber each spring. It is a native wildflower, but also grown from seed in home gardens. It is a host for many butterflies including the Monarch. 

The tough root of the Butterfly Weed has been used in years past for treating inflammation of the Pleura-(Pleurisy), as well as measles, typhus, fevers and a tonic for the kidneys. 
The native species is often lost to diminishing habitat and human disturbance. It is blooming right now in 3 places in our neighborhood.

It is unique among Milkweeds in that the sap is clear and the leaves are alternate. Besides having the inner whorl of petals called the corolla and the outer whorl called the sepals, the milkweeds have a third whorl above the corolla called the corona. 

from Backyard Nature

Jim Conrad of Backyard Nature labels a close-up photo of the flower parts and explains how as an insect is attracted to the flower and seeks the pollen, its legs slip into a gland in the center of the flower where the pollen is. A whole "V" shaped part called the pollinarium sticks to the insects leg and is carried by the insect to the next flower where it will come into contact with the stigma and pollination takes place.


from Backyard Nature

Modern Art Portraits Georges Rouault

Simone

Recently we explored some of the paintings of Georges Rouault, a French Expressionist painter. 

The Old King 1936

As a young man, he had apprenticed at a stained glass studio, restoring Medieval glass. The bright colors of the glass and the religious subjects of the art influenced his style of painting. 

Christ of the Incas 1930

He enjoyed painting people and his subjects included not only religious subjects, but clowns, acrobats, Pierrots, ballerinas, peasants and workers.

Dors Mon Amor (Sleep My Love)1935

He focused on the expressions and feeling and emotions of his subjects and used strong colors and heavy lines when portraying them. 

Amazone 1930


I used the lesson, “LINES AND COLORS A Structure EnclosingJewel-like Colors” from the Silicon Valley Art Museum as a guide. I asked the students to create a portrait that showed the feelings and emotions of a subject. 

Anna

It could be a portrait of themselves, an athlete, a family member or friend, a king or queen, ballerina, some kind of performer, etc. 

Emma

I asked them to draw it large, to use simple lines and to break up the areas into large spaces like a stained glass piece.  

Tommy

Since it was to be a one-class project and we would not have time to let black tempera lines dry, I had them trace over the pencil with black pastel before painting their colors. Then they could begin to fill in the “glass” areas with bright colors of tempera.

Orion

 The lesson suggested not to wash your brush between each color, but to instead, use a paper towel to wipe off most of the color. As you dip into the next color, some of the old color will show through, making the new color more interesting. 

Nicole (a parent that participated!)

The kids seemed to enjoy mixing the colors they wanted and continued to fill in all the spaces using the paint thickly.

Sophia

 As they finished the colors, I suggested using black tempera to go over the pastel lines so they would stand out better. 

Ben

In the background, try to use colors that will contrast from the colors of your subject to help it stand out.

Joshua

Ashtyn

Laurel

Trinity

As I Was Walking....

Looking and listening....

This bug was scurrying along across the road one afternoon as I was walking the dog-

traveling so fast that it was tricky to photograph!

I originally thought it was a centipede or millipede and couldn't find it anywhere online-

I finally did a search for larvae and discovered that it is in the beetle family and is called Glow-worm or Railroad Worm  Coleoptera: Phengodidae

What is interesting is that the females are larvaiform, which I just learned means they look similar in the larvae and in the adult stage-They are also able to produce light from photic organs located on each side of the body. 

I used Photoshop to create a glowing look!

Linking to MoM #41 

Then, last week as I was walking through the woods, I heard a bird making a squawking that I didn't recognize. I looked to see where it was coming from and saw a Pileated woodpecker moving around near the top of a dead tree. 

Pileated Woodpecker

They have a distinctive loud call and this squawking was different. 

There were several holes and as I watched I thought I saw something move in the hole. Babies? That would explain it!

The next day I didn't see anything and was wondering if i imagined it. 

Friday late afternoon, I got my husband to come look and we brought his camera that has a zoom on it. There were babies inside!

 We didn't want to scare them, so stayed back a ways and they were up high, but the zoom let us see the 2 heads sticking out! 

So cool!  A tripod would help with the photo and

I'm hoping my friend with a good camera can come out and photograph them!

Exploring and Creating Op Art

Victor Vasarley

Op Art or optical art was an art movement that began in Paris and spread to the U.S. in the 1960’s. It was so named because the designs tricked the eyes into seeing an illusion of movement.  These illusions were achieved by the way the artist arranged the shapes, lines, and colors within geometric and abstract designs. 

Gene Davis, Untitled Painting, 1969 

In a recent class on Op Art, we explored images of Op art paintings with the purpose of discovering the visual elements the artists used and how they were arranged in the artwork. 
Questions to think about...

What kind of shapes have the artists used? Are they organic or geometric? 
What kinds of lines? Are there patterns? 
What are the colors used and how to they work together? (Contrasting? Complimentary? Analogous?)

How have the artists arranged the elements of art? Do they create a balanced look? 

Is it formal or informal? Is there contrast? 

What might be the artist’s purpose in creating this work?

Gene Davis (1920-1985) was an artist who in the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s used repeated lines of different colors to show or attract the viewer’s attention to simple, bare geometric forms. While the forms are very simple, the play of colors can create many varied effects of rhythm and repetition and can become more meaningful. This has been called Minimalism, an art form where “less is more”.

Two Part Blue, 1964 Gene Davis

"Davis uses stripes as events. The intervals between the variously colored stripes incorporate both space and time.Color plays a key role as it adds a sometimes jazzy or syncopated rhythm in some works and a more restrained and diffused tempo in others."

Compare Gene Davis’s stripes to Ross Bleckner’s circles. 


Preparation, 1999 Ross Bleckner

Ross Bleckner (1949-) is a painter who lives in New York City and whose paintings contain good examples of organic shapes. They resemble plants, bubbles, and cells or other microbiological matter. The color is very soft and subtle. For the last 20 years, his art has been largely an investigation of change, loss, and memory, often addressing the subject of AIDS. But Mr. Bleckner uses symbolic imagery rather than direct representation, and his work is visually elusive, with forms that constantly change focus. “So much of my work is about building up and taking apart,” he explained, about how the shapes form and uniform, how they dissolve and reassemble.” He also did a series of stripe paintings similar to those of Davis, but with added symbolism.  

Meditation, 2007 Ross Bleckner

Victor Vasarley (1908-1997) is a Hungarian-born French painter of geometric abstractions who became one of the main figures in the Op art movement. 


Vega, 1957 Victor Vasarley

Vasarley was interested in the science of color and optics and created many works that gave the illusion of movement. He also wanted to create art that was easily understandable to all. He appreciated nature and based some of his designs on the vastness and infinity of the universe.

 

Vega Leap, 1970 Victor Vasarley

How do Vasarley’s paintings create movement? 

How do they give the illusion of 3-dimension?

Creating an op art painting
Try you hand at exploring the effects of color contrasts by painting stripes of different colors next to each other.

Vary the colors using the color wheel for ideas. This can be done similar to Gene Davis’s paintings. See what effects each has. 

Do they seem to contrast greatly from each other or do they seem to flow nicely together?  

See if you can create movement of an optical illusion. 

To create an Op Art drawing or painting similar to the black and white one of Vasarley, decide on a simple shape or object you would like to express, draw the object(s) on a sheet of paper with pencil. 

Kelly

Then starting at an edge of the paper, draw parallel lines in a pattern over the whole page. 

Elijah

You can also create a grid over the shapes.

Erin 

Paint every other space (formed by the parallel lines)to create a checkerboard pattern.

By drawing curved lines over the circle, you can create a 3-dimensional ball.

Sundar

I found a great diagram for drawing this pattern on Ms. Fine's blog

Leighton

?

Instead of black and white, you can chose two colors from your stripe painting to fill in the blocks like a checkerboard pattern. 

Candy

Makayla

 Another idea could be to alternate 3 colors. Check this blog for a clear instruction sheet for this pattern 

Jane

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Untitled Oil on Canvas, 2005    Miki Lee

I love the work of Korean artist Miki Lee, with the variations of colors in radial and vertical zigzag patterns


Drawing 1, 2008 Miki Lee 

She was my inspiration for 
"Flashing into Spring"

  Jane