Welcome to a week of Se7en + 1 Crafty GiveAways on our blog
Se7en + 1 Creative Posts Back to Back
Some books inspire you to make an art gallery… and this is one of them…
Recently I attended the PanMacMillan Children’s Presentation for 2013 and I have to say I literally grabbed this book to take a look inside – you know when you are just going to love a book before you even peep inside it!!! Luckily we were given a copy to review, by PanMacmillan South Africa, because I know our readers will love it too!!!
I do feel it necessary to warn you that you may well have to be prepared for an art frenzy if you leave this book lying on your coffee table. It is not a passive book at all… you and your kids will be drawn in to projects and before you know it your pastels and coloured papers will be out and art will just be happening!!!
Se7en + 1 things We LOVED about this book
- We love Learning About Famous Artists: There is a great and wide variety of fabulous famous artists and their work displayed in this book… Some of our favourites like Calder and Escher… and some folk we definitely need to know more about…
- This Book is Inspiring: There is enough about each artist for us to be inspired to go and look up more on a particular artist and you can definitely look forward to more great artist studies in the future. Why have we not studied Miro for example, or Andy Warhol!!!
- We Love the Artwork: Each artist gets a double page spread and most of that is a beautiful artwork to examine. I love that artworks aren’t squashed and squeezed onto the page. But rather at least half the allotted spread is devoted to the artwork. You can really look at it up and close and enjoy the details.
- We Love Quick and Easy Snippets to Read: Each spread has a paragraph to read about the Artist and a paragraph about the artwork or the style of the art. Just enough to read, in easy to read bite-size snippets. This really is a great way to dip into famous artists. And if you are inspired then you can go and look up more about that artist.
- A Variety of Art: This isn’t just a collection of fuddy duddy old artists with the same old style… there are heaps of completely different types of art: drawing, printing, painting, sculpture…
- Each Double Page Spread has a Lift the Flap: My kids love a book that requires them to do something to find more information and find something they did… on each spread on of the pages has a whole half page flap and under the flap… is a fabulous hands on project!!!
- We Love A Great Project: A Relevant project to each of the artworks… easy step by step projects that the hoods could do on their own. The projects use a wide variety of techniques and materials yet nothing that you wouldn’t have in your typical arty corner. Paints, pastels, paper plates, coloured paper… nothing dramatic… but once they got going with their art they were able to produce really dramatic works of art…
- Fabulous Family Resource: I left this book on the coffee table to see who would jump in and read it and be inspired it – apart from me!!! Because I loved it from the get go… just my kind of book. My older kids all leapt straight for the projects and worked backwards… once they found a project that they wanted to do, they settled in and read the material and finally examined the artwork. My middle kids, easy readers, were all drawn to the easy reading… they honestly don’t want to read more than a paragraph… but this was totally doable for them. The youngest hoods loved the artwork and poured over it… the work of these great artists are totally etched on their minds and they will definitely recognise the work in other places further on down the line. We are always looking for books we can learn from as a family – this would make a great project once a week through a school term
And the Se7en + 1th Thing…
So Here is Our Art Gallery
The GiveAway
So We have a copy of this book to GiveAway to a lucky reader… Leave a comment and tell us about your favourite Great Artist…
This GiveAway works in the usual way, just leave a quick comment and you have until the close of play on the Sunday 28 April 2013, to enter. We will draw and publish the winner next week and I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway.
Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. All our GiveAways are World-Wide – so no excuse – leave a comment and enter away!!!
We want to thank PanMacMillan South Africa for the book that they sent us for review. And we would like to declare that we were not paid to do our reviews, just provided with book. All the opinions and artwork are entirely our own!!!
My favorite artist would have to be Alexander Calder. In our Art Museum here (Philadelphia) we have a huge mobile made by him titled “Ghost.” I love watching it spin and move with the air currents in the great hall.
Yes please!
Monet has always been my favorite.
What fabulous craft: your people are so inventive!
This book would look really wonderful in our coffee table ;)we do love Picasso and Miro, well what can I say….I am Spanish 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
My Kids (4 and 2 ) Love VAN GOGH the warm colors, shapes, and rough texture.
Although I have many favorite “famous” artists like Rembrandt, DaVinci, Klee, Dali, Monet, and VanGough, my favorite “great” artists are my 6 kiddos. Their artwork makes my heart smile and is worth more to me than any of the priceless pieces in museums. I love my little picassos-
Worldwide?! You are brave! I guess van Gogh is among my favorites. My great aunt is also a wonderful artist, we have one of her beautiful paintings hanging in our daughter’s room. Also a fan of Thomas Kincaid.
I’ve got two – and theyre both South African. Paul du Toit and Irma Stern (have you visited her museum/home below UCT?)
looks like a stunning book. one of my absolute favourite artists’ has to be Matisse!
We love Monet. Looks like a beautiful book!
I don’t really have a favorite artist. I do like many of the well known impressionist works. It would be nice to learn about the artists as well as have projects to create. My children enjoy projects. I have one who is especially crafty and would love a book that inspires creative work. Thanks for the giveaway.
Someone asked me this question just yesterday 🙂 and I couldn’t decide!
I think my favourite is Matisse:)
It has to be Van Gogh, I love his use of colour and patterns. Thanks for the giveaway again!
I love Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, Paul Klee, and da Vinci. Thanks for the fun opportunity!
I love them all! Seriously could not pick one! But i do espically adore a super creative artist who has 7+ 1 kids in SA!
Wow! What a great looking book. We need to do more art around here. My favorite artist is Monet.
shew difficult one, so many…do love Van Gogh though x
Love Degas ballerinas. Monet to. X
I really don’t know much about art, but I do enjoy Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
I really like Rizzi at the moment. Take a few mins to look him up, great character buildings and cars and happy pictures.
I enjoy da Vinci and Van Gogh.
Hard to choose – I liked the Expressionists, but not to hang on the wall! What a great book.
Matisse! This book looks awesome and just what we need around here.
J.M.W. Turner, Degas, and Van Gogh are some of my favorites.
oooh i’d lOVE this book! so need it for my crafty daughter!
our fave artist is Akiane
love
Claire
Stunning book! We loved seeing VAN GOGH’s paintings in the National Gallery. So he’s my favourite at the moment 🙂
Hard to say…but I’ll go with the Dancer on Stage by Degas.
Love the look of this! My favourite artist is Monet. My kids- not sure. We love Impressionists and later.
Favourite artist? That is a difficult choice to make. I like van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, and Vermeer.
Your Art gallery – WONDERFUL!
Monet I think….
Edward Hopper’s happier pieces- the ones of New England, Route 66 , the lighthouse.
Love your site and hope I win!
my daughter
I like Degas. Our local museum has his sculptures too and my kids love that.