Exploring Light in the Museum this Autumn

Using light in paintings as an inspiration for our own work

During this late Autumn period, here in the UK, our working world starts and ends in darkness. Whilst we have had some beautiful Autumn days with the sun warming rustling leaves and beautiful dew tipped spider webs spectacularly glistening, our extended darkness has been an opportunity to explore light in a variety of forms.

We attended the Diwali family celebrations at The National Gallery this November. A day filled with exploring light in the museum, using the paintings as sources of inspiration and celebration.

The boys particularly enjoyed the Magic Carpet story inspired by Rembrandt's oil painting entitled "Belshazzar's Feast", a painting based on the Old Testament Book of Daniel (5:1-6, 25-28). With his guitar and a few props, such as a crown and a jug, the story teller shared the tale of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, who blasphemously served wine in stolen scared vessels at a lavish banquet. The painting depicts the moment when a hand appears and scribes the phrase MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,  understood by Daniel to mean "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians", That night Belshazzar was slain.

After sharing the story our host encouraged the children to identify aspects of the painting that appeared in the story - the jug, the hand, the king himself and simultaneously the use of light and dark to illuminate and heighten this divine intervention.

Mid story telling flow.

Exploring the guitar after the story.

We also spent part of our day on a light trial around the gallery. Below is a list of paintings on display in The National Gallery where light and dark can be explored.

Claude, Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheeba, 1648

Guido Reni, The Adoration of the Shepherds, about 1640

Harmen Steenwyck, Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life, about 1640

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus, 1601

Claude Monet, Water-Lillies Setting Sun, about 1907

Pieter Codde, A Woman Holding a Mirror, 1625

The boys took inspiration from the paintings above to create their own illumines picture.

A cut this shape from a folded piece of black paper. He chose "pinky" tissue paper to attach to the back.

All the children's work was displayed on an illuminated globe which did a tour of the gallery at the end of the day.

S interpreted the task in a different way, using the dark as the main focus of his picture and the light as the background. He was very specific with what he wanted to do and how it should be displayed.

All the pictures looked stunning amongst the twinkling fairy lights. The process of using tissue paper also connects to our lanterns which we use at various festivities this time of year.

The lanterns are made from all food jars which have a twisted wire handle. The boys were around 18 months each when they made these and enjoyed the experience of pasting torn pieces of tissue paper onto the side with glue. 

Little S making his lantern in 2012.

The glue glaze has protected the jars and saved them shattering from many drops onto hard surfaces! Inside we put 2 LED night lights so it is safe for the boys to carry around.

A glowing lantern on Bonfire Night 2012

This is A on his way to the November 5th Bonfire Night celebrations at Grandad's house this year.

How are you lighting up these dark Autumnal nights?

Spice scented paint

Spice scented paint

S has been captivated by the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. 

As part of exploring the food often eaten during this celebration we gravitated towards the aromatic spices that adorn beautiful, flavoursome dishes. 

We looked in our store cupboard and found an array of spices. We mixed the spice in a small jar with some water to get a paint-like consistency.

The smell was tremendous and filled the whole kitchen as the boys stirred and then transferred the perfumed paste onto the paper.

Lots of vocals came with the painting "swish, dot, dot, dot, splat" says S. 

A copied "dot, dot, dot." He then picked up two brushes.

Th scent of the finished pictures remained until morning to remind us of our sensory paining experience. 

Alphabet handprints

Alphabet handprints

Since starting school this September S has been learning phonics - the sounds and letters of the alphabet and how to use them in reading and writing. 

To support him with this we have been creating an alphabet frieze using handprints to create pictures for each letter.

I chose handprints as a medium of doing this because it is a very simple process. Using their hands is one of the first skills a child will explore when coming into contact with paint and therefore it allowed us to explore the phonic element to the activity further.

"It tickles" says A.

The surprise at looking at a printed hand. 

We added features to the animals and objects before mounting them. 

They now hang proudly in the boys bedroom. 

The Bear's Winter House

S asked to read "The Bear's Winter House"  by John Yeoman and Quentin Blake (ISBN 978-1-84270-916-0). 

After finishing the story he wanted to make a house/ den too. I drew his attention to the plan bear makes of his house and S asked to make a plan too.

A quickly follows saying "bear house, bear house".

Having started to learn letters at school since September, S started by making a list of what bear needed, "sticks, moss, leaves".

He then drew the house. (Photo upside down)

We went outside to have a go at building the house. We were on holiday so I didn't have a toy bear to use in the play. We used the boys' owls instead.

Trying it out for size.

"We need moss mummy, the bear needs moss".

A finished house.

The boys loved building on a large scale, the achievement of moving huge logs around and working out how to balance and prop them up safely. The fact that they could use the shelter made it more exciting. They could also see which logs needed moving to enable them to move around inside. 

Who would you build a house for?

Leaf Colours

After exploring our Autumn leaves - making pictures and  creating sculptures and sharing stories such as "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Elhert (ISBN 0-15-266197-2) we tried to recreate some  autumnal colours using paint.

However - instead of intially using brushes we used a salad spinner.

S squirted paint into a cardboard leaf shape which we tacked to the bottom of the spinner.

We put on the lid and then began to spin. This is also a great gross motor activity for young children.

Once we removed the lid we could see the paint distribute over the leaf.

After making several using different shaped leaves and colour combinations we used fine brushes to pick up an residue in the bottom of the spinner to paint onto some leaves themselves. 

We displayed our leaves on the window once dry. What methods have you used to create autumnal colours?

Leaf Man

"Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert (ISBN 0-15-205304-2) is one of our favourite Autumn stories as it lends itself to endless possibilities in using leaves to create pictures.

We have collected leaves on various Autumn walks and gathered them together.

"These are his eyes (conkers) and these spiky bits (sweet chestnuts) are his eyebrows. That's (acorns) his smile. These (side leaves) are his arms. Now he needs some legs"

S went on to tell me a beautiful story all about his Leaf man and the adventures he got up to. What leaf character would you make?

Conkers

Several weeks ago a good friend of mine bought me this fantastic set for my birthday, comprising of a wooden clamp and three screws to make hole in conkers.

S at 4 years could very easily unscrew the top of the holder, drop the conker inside and tighten to clamp it in place. He then perserved and twisted the screwing device round and round to make a hole through the conker. This worked particularly well when the conkers were freshly fallen, harder conkers are obviously more difficult to penetrate.

Having a bowl of freshly holed conkers opened up many possibilities for creating. Threading seemed a natural way to use the conkers and so we started to thread them onto pipe cleaners. When the holes were made with the largest screw A, at 2 years, could push it through independently.

S was keen to thread too - he is what he came up with.

If left outside - be warned - by the next morning only numbers 3 and 4 remained entacted.