 Walking On Water is a classic book by Madeleine L'Engle, author of timeless treasures like A Wrinkle in Time, A Ring of Endless Light and others. Though I was familiar with her fiction I had never read any of her spiritual classics. Convergent/ Penguin Random House, LLC has presented a beautiful reprint featuring a modern and (though understated) artistic cover. This updated version also contains a very well written preface by Sara Zarr who places the work in context and emphasizes its value in today's world. Don't skip it! Christian Artists in all areas are still asking the same questions: How do we balance our faith and art? L'Engle attempts to answer this mountain of a question and, I believe, in her own way she succeeded. Apart from the Bible, no book has impacted me as deeply as Walking On Water. I couldn't put it down. I felt like I was having a great conversation with the author herself as she not only spoke to me, but understood me. She grasps the rich tangle of an artistic mind and the layers of questions and fears we wrestle with. She also shouts with literary elegance the great responsibility and opportunity we have as artists to create with God and heal our world through the act of obedience and willing participation. She explains in brilliant language things I think our souls already know on some level, but couldn't accept. My book is all marked up with underlining and notes in the margins. Everything spoke to me on a deep level I can't even fully explain. This book reached me where I'm at. It gave a sort of marching orders to be excellent, not create bad religion. To create in union with the Creator. To guard the dreamers, the children, the places of fairy tales and unicorns and art. To be who and what I am with no divisions. I needed this message and I believe others do as well. I highly recommend this book for artists, those who value art and for anyone that teaches children. I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. Links: Website: http://www.madeleinelengle.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadeleineLEngle Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tesserwellMLE/ Purchase at: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/96880/walking-on-water-by-madeleine-lengle/#collapse2 It is my sincere honor to give this book 5 stars and, if I could, I'd give it a galaxy.  Here are just some of the wonderful lines I've highlighted in my copy. . .
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 The adult coloring craze has infiltrated bookstores and online book selling sites with record sales. Why not? Coloring is fun, relaxing and good for you. With a certain level of stress commonplace in our society, the invitation to slow down and reflect is enticing. Everything Beautiful is a coloring book that delivers beauty and so much more. Forty-five beautiful designs were contributed by nine talented artists. Each design features a hand-lettered quote and artwork on high quality perforated paper. On the back of each design page there is additional information on the source of the quote. For example, if a quote is from a hymn the entire hymn would be written on the reverse side of the page. The print is light so it won't be visible on your coloring page. The book also contains a playlist of encouraging and soothing Christian music to listen to as you color. When I color, I enjoy peace and quiet. I like to kind of be in my own head. Music is sort of distracting to me when I'm being artistic. However, the playlist is stellar and it can be played anytime for your enjoyment. I feel like I received three special thing in this coloring book: A casual Devotional, coloring pages, and music. Here are my favorite features:
I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.   Art enthusiasts and color lovers will be stunned by the beauty of Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheintserger. This book contains:
The text is just as beautiful with poetic language like: "Pigments are the true soul of the paints" or "Color is alive; it's emotional and brings us to an entirely new place." Not only does the author flawlessly present his love of the watercolor medium, he presents a love of language and expression. This is an excellent companion for art classes and homeschoolers who require nature journals. Readers will learn several ways to combine sketches with watercolor. I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.  There are a few really great freebies available to homeschoolers right now. Though I don't have the pleasure of making them, I do have the joy of sharing them. Don't miss these goodies!  Thinking Tree is giving away: 75 Reasons To Believe In God: A Wordless Book of Evidence For A Designer, Creator & Giver of Life You can download the PC version in PDF containing 79 pages of vibrant color photos of animals, landscapes and life forms that will take your breath away. In full-color print, this book sells for $19.50.  You can also download the full eBook of Picturing The Past which is a stunning collection of classic painting. This book sells in print for $27 and it's a great price at that. Downloading it for free is an amazing blessing! Grab it! If you want to include art discussion in your homeschool but could not afford stunning printables, just use your screen. No excuses.  Continue your art fix with beautiful fine art pages by Enrichment Studies free to download. Download Girls in Art Fine Art Pages and receive 9 gorgeous classic images to discuss and admire. Save them on a flash drive and take them to the printer. They're begging for a frame.  One more freebie to share and, though it is not exclusive to homeschoolers, I think it's worth mentioning here.
Kristal Norton is hosting a free online art journaling class for beginners. If this is a way that you or your students might enjoy expressing themselves, go sign up and learn some great techniques to expand your creativity and give voice to your inner thoughts in a personal and colorful way.  Recently I found a beautifully illustrated copy of Kate Greenaway's Marigold Garden. My copy was printed by Fredrick Warne & CO LTD. which makes it even more special to me.
If you didn't know, Fredrick Warne &CO was the same publishing house who took on Beatrix Potter and gave her her first big break. I was already familiar with Kate Greenaway's artistic style. I'd seen several of her illustrations and fallen in love with her soft muted color pallet and the gentle childhood expressions she put on the faces she painted. These expressions she created always seemed to float between innocence, peaceful resolve and slight boredom. I couldn't tell if the child was as pure as the driven snow, content beyond words or bored out of its mind. Still, these quiet images soothed me. If this artist is new to you, I know you will enjoy reading and viewing free examples of her beautiful artwork and poetry here. I knew that I liked Kate Greenaway's style and that she was an English artist and illustrator who lived in the Victorian period, but I didn't know much more about her. You can read a brief bio here. That was all I knew about her. I didn't know was that Kate Greenaway was a pivotal influence on needlework. I learned later that many of the red work sunbonnet sue patterns that are common on children's quilts are actually inspired by her. Even though I don't sew, this new information sent me on a massive hunt for Kate Greenaway red work patterns. It's never to late to learn a new skill right? I found a cross stitch pattern, iron on transfers, and a cheap copy of a hard cover book of patterns. But I still didn't know how to sew, or stitch or embroider or . . . . Then I found this amazing site that has a primer with pdf lessons in stitches and free samplers. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but that is when the light bulb clicked on. This would make a wonderful life skill to teach my daughter! And . . . I could even tie it into our current living book. In Hetty Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field, young Phoebe is learning to do stitch work as a hobby, she was also made to work a more challenging sampler as punishment for her misbehavior. This new life skill would tie my daughter to the character and bond them together through personal experience. I would be giving her a richer connection to the book and pulling her into the story. Bonus! Another great embroidery site primer can be found here. This great site is also bubbling over with information on red work. Would you rather start small? This site has beautiful free samplers for beginners- advanced. After reviewing the pdf primer lessons together with your child and developing confidence in your stitches, maybe consider allowing your child to choose their pattern themselves. This creative choice might inspire them. Also, if you're really brave, you can follow in the footsteps of Victorian young ladies who made their own patterns. Here is a site that will teach their method for making perforated patterns. As you begin learning this skill, remember to take some relaxing time snuggled up on a couch together reading Kate's poetry. As the pages turn, allow the warm images and the quiet beauty of childhood to invite you back in time. Happy Reading! Recently, we have been studying the art work of Leonardo da Vinci. We currently have five of his paintings hanging on my living room walls (Mona Lisa, Ginevra de' Benci, Lady with an Ermine, The Virgin of the Rocks, andStudy of Cat Movements and Positions). Their decided favorite of da Vinci's works is Lady with an Ermine, who they all find "beautiful" and "rich looking". This painting has led to some fascinating and fun discussions in my home. When I first hung Lady with an Ermine my mother was visiting. She noticed the painting and asked "what is that animal supposed to be?" I thought I knew something and I answered that it was called an ermine and probably extinct. The whole matter was forgotten until yesterday when my daughter asked if we could research what ermines were like (being told by me that they were extinct and all). I quickly discovered how little I knew. Ermines do exist today, and though they are not a widely known animal, there are enough of them out there to keep them off any endangered or threatened lists. My daughter's curiosity led to great learning for all of us. Here is what we learned about ermines:  Ermines (Mustela erminea) are members of the weasel family. You can find ermine in Canada, Northern USA, and Eurasia. Ermines are very territorial carnivores that live and thrive in the Siberian tundra. God created them with the unique ability to handle extreme cold. They also enjoy marshes and woodlands. Their life span is only 4-7 years. With such a short life span it seems only reasonable that the females would mature as early as two months old! It takes the male ermine about ten months to catch up . . . no comment ;). Mating occurs as soon as they are able to hunt independently. They can have up to thirteen kits (young) in each litter. The moms are the active parents who raise and provide for the kits. Ermines feed on birds like chicken and snow owls as well as squirrels and rabbit. As a key feature, God created the ermine with a beautiful and useful coat. It has the ability and benefit of changing color in the spring and winter to camouflage it from predators. In the spring the ermine's coat is brown, blending it into the ground and woodlands. In the winter its white coat is virtually invisible against the snowy surroundings. The change of appearance is dramatic and beautiful. The one constant is the tip of its tail which always remains black. In our study we learned that ermines were used for clothing and as status symbols in the Middle Ages. We also learned that the little black tip of their tail was a key ingredient to producing the paintbrushes that artists treasured in da Vinci's day. In one of da Vinci's notebooks he writes about feeding the ermine every two days. This might have been a logical pet for an artist. He may have cared for the ermine temporarily during the sittings for his painting, or maybe it was a permanent resident in his studio. It was fun to wonder about what an ermine might do and how it might behave around paints and canvas while hanging out in da Vinci's studio. During the renaissance the ermine was prevalent in art and literature. It represented royalty, purity, and chastity. Leonardo da Vinci may have used the ermine in Lady with an Ermine to depict his subject (Cecelia Gallarani) as virginal. He also may have had a more witty and puzzling purpose for using the ermine. Cecelia Gallarini was a very young mistress to the Duke of Milan (There was some discrepancy with her age. Accounts have her as 9, 10 or 17 years of age). In any case, it would have been wise and appropriate to depict her as innocent and virginal. From our biographical reading on Leonardo da Vinci we learned that da Vinci loved word games, riddles and witty puzzles. Some speculate that his use of the ermine was a play on words with her last name being so close to the Greek word for ermine (galay). The painting is wonderfully made. I love his use of color and the heavy richness of the hues. Maybe your children would like to experiment with coloring their own interpretation of Lady with an ermine. A very well done coloring page can be found here.  Another notable portrait containing an ermine was made of Queen Elizabeth 1. Where the ermine seems large in the arms of Cecelia, the ermine is much smaller in Queen Elizabeth 1's painting (created by Sir William Segar). He sort of hides out in her sleeve.
The size of the ermine could be reflective of the human subject's age, or in Queen Elizabeth's case, shrunk down for greater symbolic subtlety. It both cases the ermine enhances the wealth and status of the painting's subject. If you have little ones you might like to check out this poem about ermines. It was created to teach the letter E, but it also worked for my little ones who were joining in with our fun tangent of scientific learning sparked by art. Happy Learning! My sources: http://f01.middlebury.edu/FS010A/students/n075.htm http://ideamarketers.com/?leonard_da_vinci,_pets,_pet_lovers,_art&articleid=121862 http://www.topofart.com/artists/da_Vinci_Leonardo/art_reproduction/1009/Lady_with_an_Ermine_(Cecilia_Gallarani).php *Images in this post are in the public domain. They were obtained from Karen's Whimsy and Wikepedia Commons. Thanks to both sites for making them available. |
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