Child’s age: 1.5 – 2.5 years old
Children love boxes, everybody knows it. And they love small objects – it’s even described in Montessori method as a “sensitive period for small objects” (circa in age 1.5-2.5 years old). Also this is the age when toddlers learn color names. My conclusion was obvious – let’s make a color matching box for our younger son.
mapart.me: Color matching box
All you need for color box is:
* a shadow box with 9 compartments (you can also use smaller or bigger one, see my notes below)
* paints: red, blue, yellow, white and black
* a collection of small objects found around your house
Colors:
I wanted to include 9 colors: all primary and secondary colors (red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange), brown (the mixture of all primary colors), white and black, that’s why I needed a shadow box with 9 compartments.
You can also make different versions with:
* only 4 colors (red, blue, yellow and green),
* 6 colors (primary and secondary colors)
* or even 12 colors – adding for example pink, grey and sky blue to 9-colors version which I made.
It all depends on your child’s age and objects you can find around your house.
One important note about colors: I recommend using rather light color versions of blue (like sky blue), green, violet and brown for a few reasons:
* lighter colors are easier to discriminate than darker ones
* in a shadow box colors will appear darker
* most of the small objects I found at home are of ligher shade than “model colors” and it may confuse your child a litlle.
That’s why I’ll probably repaint our box (at least blue and green compartments) in a spare time.
I’ve been working on mineral drawings / watercolor paintings series recently and I think it’s a good time to share them here. I’ve done 6 paintings and at this point my work started to evaluate in different direction, so I think I’m done with mineral watercolor paintings for this moment. I’ll share another version of these drawings next week. Here they are:
Hanna Grochowska – Spodumene
Hanna Grochowska – Opal
Hanna Grochowska – Aegirine
Hanna Grochowska – Clinoclase
Hanna Grochowska – Olivine
Hanna Grochowska – Vermiculite
Prints of all paintings are available in my Etsy shop.
I just came across “Underwater Plantlife” series of linocut prints by Jennifer Ament and immediately had to share them! So simple and beautiful!
All images via artist’s website.
Child’s age: 1.5 – 3 years old
One of our all time favourites is a series about Bartholomew Bear – a little bear who is funny, emotional and naughty just like every other toddler. Short stories are brillantly illustrated by Virginia Miller – in very few pencil strokes she is able to portray little bear’s strong emotions – so well known to any parent of a toddler.
There are six books in this series (I list the best in our opinion at the beginnning):
I haven’t found a source for new books so we bought used ones, but they are sturdy and came in very good condition. You can find them on Amazon. I recommend board books (they also come in form of one big standard book which is not so convenient).
Virginia Miller “Eat your Dinner” (via)
Virginia Miller – Eat your Dinner
Virginia Miller – Be Gentle
Virginia Miller – Be Gentle
Writing this post I found out there is another (seek-and-find) book about Ba which we still don’t have – Where Is Little Black Kitten. As soon as we get it in our hands I’ll update this review!
These watercolor paintings by Sarah Hinckley are so simple and beautiful I had a hard time choosing only a few… You can find more on Sarah Hinckley’s web site.
Sarah Hinckley – Light a spark (3)
Sarah Hinckley – Be the change
Sarah Hinckley – A wind down the road
Sarah Hinckley – As far as the eye can see (1)
Sarah Hinckley – After all the dreaming I come home (2)
Sarah Hinckley – Troubles behind (1)
All images via Sarah Hinckley’s web site.
We rarely associate black and white colors with food illustration but it’s not so obvious. Here are some very interesting illustrations by Alice Pattullo, artist based in East London:
mapart.me: Alice Pattullo – Vegetables
Alice Pattullo – Vegetables
Alice Pattullo – Fish
Alice Pattullo – Dairy
Alice Pattullo – People
You can find more (not food related) illustrations on Alice Pattullo’s site or blog.
Today I wanted to share with you these sweet food illustrations by Katt Frank:
Katt Frank – food illustration
Katt Frank – food illustration
Katt Frank – food illustration
Katt Frank – food illustration
Katt Frank – food illustration
All images via Katt Frank’s Tumblr – check for many more beautiful illustrations!
Recently I came across these dreamy, irrealistic landscape photomontages by Polly Balitro, artist based in Helsinki, Finland, and I just couldn’t resist to share them here.
Project description from artist’s blog:
These photomontages are the result of the encounter between my photographs from Lapland and my collection of Finnish old photographs. they might make little sense at first glance – but all you need is a closer look to find the right connection.
Polly Balitro – photomontage
Polly Balitro – photomontage
Polly Balitro – photomontage
Polly Balitro – photomontage
Polly Balitro – photomontage
If you want to see more photographs by Polly Balitro please visit her site.
All images via artist’s blog.
Spring does not seem to come soon unfortunately (at least in Poland) which means we have a lot of bird guests for breakfasts here. A few days ago I set up a real life matching activity for my boys and the younger one (almost 2 years old) got it instantly. He is learning to speak at this moment and each opportunity to name something is interesting for him.
I recently ordered a set of Usborne birds cards from Amazon and it was perfect for this purpose. It contains 30 beautiful illustrations of birds living in UK (I guess), but many of them are the same as in Poland. Illustrations are detailed and accurate as well as really beautiful. I chose 6 birds which are our frequent guests: house sparrow, 2 species of doves, great tit, magpie and a sea gull and just placed them on a wall with washi tape near the window where the birds are coming for breakfast. My son got it in a moment and started to point and name pigeons as soon as they came for breakfast – in fact this is the first thing he does in the morning everyday now.
For more inspiration visit:
MapArt 