Turner's light

When it comes to studying British artists, JMW Turner's name always comes up amongst the top list.  With him being labeled as part of the Romantic movement, and after our study of John Constable, we thought we were going to see pretty much similar styles -- countryside scenes, detailed paintings, etc.  I am very glad we decided to study both artists separately as both of them could not be more different from each other.

Picture Study
Once again, I had a few postcard-sized reproductions of Turner's work on the door, as well as on my computer screen.  These were on display all the time so that Tiger was able to see them each day.  By now, he knows that he is expected to discuss/narrate any one of the pictures he sees on the door at some point.

We used several sources to prepare for our discussion on Turner's style, his influences, and his most notable artistic achievement:
1) BBC Your Painting's Turner page was our first stop.  We looked through the slide show to familiarise ourselves to Turner's different works, and also listened to the audio clips.

2) We then took a visual tour of Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight here, followed by activities in the Inside Scoop - Tuner.

3) Bringing our focus back to England, we listened to the relevant parts of the National Gallery's podcasts (episodes 60, 65, 66, and 67) about Turner.

4) We also used the following book, with its short introduction and questions, to kick start the discussion:

However, we found the following documentary to be most enlightening about Turner's life and his creative process (note: parental guidance needed due to a few scenes of nudity relating to life drawing):

Hands-on Project
Turner's work is very difficult to replicate at a child's level, for the simple reason that his style is one of romantic-realism.  Without years of practise and developed fine motor skills, it is extremely difficult to create a piece of art work at a child's level and to call it "Turner inspired", in contrast with some of the more expressionistic or abstract styles.  Nonetheless, we gave it a try. First, we looked through one of Turner's sketchbooks to get inspiration from his looser, watercolour work:

Once Tiger has had some idea of watercolour sketching, we decided to attempt an atmospheric watercolour painting based on Turner's Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway.   We listened to the short discussion here before starting on the project. First, the preliminary pencil sketch...

followed by a wash...

 

Tiger had fun laying in the details as he learned to use create different marks using a combination of different brush strokes, toothbrush, and the back of his paintbrushes.

The final result:

Field Trips
We went to the V&A's Room 87 to look at Turner's work, as well as Constable's work.  Nothing compares to looking at the original artworks up close!

Tate Britain happens to be the best place to learn about Turner this time.  There was a lot of renovation going on when we went there, with the Turner collection being moved to another location.  The curator and workmen were in the process of moving the collection on the day we were there but they were nice enough to let us look slowly at the paintings without being disturbed.  I spent a long time standing in front of Fishermen at Sea.  Once again, Constable's and Turner's works were displayed in the same rooms.  As a quick 'test', I asked Tiger to identify Turner's work amongst all the paintings in the various rooms.  He faired very well in that. At Tate Britain, there is a special display about Turner's Experiments with Colour and Line in another room, so we spent another hour there learning all we could about Turner's techniques. 

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also linked up to the Carnival of Homeschooling 349th Edition.
 

Get into the picture!

"There has never been a boy painter, nor can there be.  The art requires a long apprenticeship, being mechanical, as well as intellectual."  -- John Constable

As it turns out, my original plan on how we would do art appreciation/artist study completed took on a life of its own once we got into it... 


Picture Study
I printed out four of Constable's paintings and laminated them.  These four were chosen because they are held at the galleries in England, so we would have a chance to see the actual pieces.  The print outs have been on display in our lounge/school room since the beginning of the month, so Tiger would have many instances to look at them and be familiar with them before we discussed about Constable's style and a few interesting points of his life and his paintings.

Our focus painting was The Hay Wain, which is probably the most well known pciture in this country.  Tiger narrated the picture to me, afterwhich he made some observations about the similarities and differences among the four paintings.  We also spoke briefly about how skillful Constable has been to depict the ever-changing clouds.

We also used the following books in our discussion:

Then, to 'test' how well he remembered The Hay Wain, I had Tiger put together a home-made puzzle of the painting, which he completed in a few minutes.  Admittedly, there are only about 20 pieces to the puzzle.  Next time I'll have more pieces in the puzzle.

Hands-on Activities

I had never really paid attention to Constable's work (I am more interested in figures than landscapes) until now, and have been inspired to learn alongside Tiger.  For my own learning, I borrowed the following book from the library to learn about Constable, his way of seeing things and his inspirations:

Alwyn Crawshaw gives an intimate and personal look into the Suffolk surroundings where Constable grew up and where he was inspired most to paint.  The book also gives examples of Crawshaw's interpretations of similar scenes, which encouraged me to take Tiger out to our nearby country lanes to look for similar scenes to sketch, draw and paint.  However, the week we went out was not an outdoors sketching week for it was very cold and wet so we had to satisfy ourselves with sketching indoors.  We ended up sketching from sculptures in an art gallery:

The original sculpture by artist John Mills

Tiger's sketch

Tiger then decided to improvise from his previous sketch of the horse, and drew a cat in similar style.

I try to learn alongside Tiger as well, so I had a go at sketching in the gallery as well.  The sketch is rubbish, but my excuse is that I only had 5 minutes to do it.  Nonetheless, it shows why I have to take lessons!

The follwoing is my take on a Romantic Landscape, oil on canvas.  I followed the instructions from this book.  It's not quite Constable, but that will do for now.  When I have more time (I don't know when), I will attempt another Romantic Landscape, with more of an English countryside feel.

After sketching and observing the clouds for a while (on a day when it did not rain), Tiger painted his own version of a Constable-inspired, Romantic landscape/cloudscape in watercolour:

Field Trips
(1) Constable Country
Since The Hay Wain is so well known here, we decided to take a day out and travel to Flatford to see where Constable actually painted.  It was a glorious day, and we followed the 'Constable painting trail' and saw all the places where he painted, which I thought was exceptional because the landscape and scenery there have not changed very much at all.

We started at a small museum which held an exhibition about the surrouding areas where Constable had painted, as well as his original palette!

Here comes the real deal: the painting trail.

Flatford Mill

Willy Lott's cottage

 

Still photos don't do justice to the beauty of the Suffolk countryside that inspired Constable so much, so here is a short clip that will give you a better feel.

While I was thrilled to be able to see all of this, Tiger was far happier with rowing the boat up and down the river for 3 hours and having his picnic by the river:

We then ventured to East Bergholt village where Constable had spent his childhood.

East Bergholt church where his parents were buried.

The house and garden now belong to a private owner.

(2) The National Gallery

Where possible, I believe in seeing the actual artwork to get a feel for its actual size, and to see how the artist applies his paints and brush strokes.  Many details cannot be seen clearly on screen or on print outs.  Therefore, we headed over to Room 34 in the National Gallery and we spent an hour in front of the Constable paintings admiring and analysing how he painted his master pieces -- we both admired the paintings, but I spared Tiger from the techical analysis.  That part was for me.

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.