Artists and Art - Picasso, That's Who!

My friend Kristen at Teaching Stars  got a chance to review the CD Picasso, That's Who! (and so can you!) and upon reading the review, I knew I wanted that CD for our homeschool.  Luckily, Hope Harris is incredibly generous and offered me a CD to review as well! I was ecstatic and eagerly awaited the CD's arrival.

I was not disappointed.  You can hear two of the songs here to give you an idea.  Each song is done in a different style and each of those styles reflects the artist about which Harris is singing.  For example, the song about Picasso has a Spanish flair, while the Grandma Moses song has a folk song air.  The CD includes artists the kids and I were not familiar with (Hockney, Calder, Romare Bearden) as well as ones for which we have already done lessons, either at home or at Classical Conversations (Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Klee -1, 2, 3, Matisse, Monet, Grandma Moses). 

The children enjoy the CD.  They frequently request it in the car. (Mommy, can you play the CD with the songs about the artists?) The songs are catchy and we all like to sing along.  It makes me happy that they are learning a little bit more about artists while they listen to music and that even my two year old is interested. There's nothing like hearing your two year old talking about Picasso with your four year old! Even my niece was singing "Picasso, that's who!" after riding in our car one time.  It would be great if Hope Harris creates more of these artist CDs as there isn't really anything else like this on the market for learning about visual artists. I would buy them all:)

You can get the CD from Hope Harris' site or as an MP3 download at Amazon.

Kristen has been doing artist studies (Adventures in Art)  over at her blog, going in order through the CD.  We were finishing up a row of Ferdinand when I heard about the CD so our first project involved Picasso, since he is from Spain.  It fit with Ferdinand and we were even able to see Picasso originals at a nearby art museum:) Kristen has great Picasso resources listed on her post.

Books we read:

Picasso  

Picasso and Minou 

We obviously listened to the Picasso song on Hope Harris' CD.  You can hear it here. 

Bear was very inspired by the blue period and looking especially at  Old Guitarist as inspiration.

We observed the different tints and shades of blue and experimented a bit with adding black and white to blue paint to see the effects.

 She came up with her own idea for a blue period painting - a guitar.   I requested that she try to use more than one tint of blue.

 She's such a serious artist.  She loves art, but always has serious expressions while doing art:)

The finished product.  I think it meets the criteria.

 Meanwhile, J-jo worked on his own blue period painting.

  

Then he proceeded to ask for pink paint for a rose period painting!

I highly recommend the CD Picasso, That's Who! (And so can you!).  Again, you can get the CD from Hope Harris' site or as an MP3 download at Amazon.  It's sure to add  an element of fun to art appreciation in your house.  We'll be listening to track number 3 next and looking at David Hockney paintings, to try to figure out, "who made the splash in David Hockney's painting?"  Do you know?