I took Max up to the Whitney yesterday to do one of their great Family Art Workshops and this time the project Max was to do was inspired by the show of paintings "Heat Waves in a Swamp" by Charles Burchfield. The workshop instructor was Jesse, who Max had already worked with, and when Max walked in he said, "Hey you've been here before."
We sat on the floor of a large gallery room of early works, in front of a painting titled "Four Seasons."
Jesse led a discussion and encouraged responses on how this painting that portrayed four seasons in one landscape work was unusual, interesting and mysterious.
Jesse then passed out small watercolor "postcards" and pencils and asked the children to choose their favorite painting and from it choose three favorite elements and interpret them on the postcard, which they would then use as a reference for a larger piece to be done in the studios downstairs.
Max's beautiful drawing downstairs was inspired by Burchfield's painting "An April Mood"(above) of a crooked tree in a storm, very gray in palette, very dramatic. It looked like a haunted-house type-of-tree that we are seeing in stores and imagery all over these days.
I was inspired by this painting "Dandelion seed heads and the moon" (above), which had trees blowing in the breeze and butterflies and a dragonfly. One of the very modern things Burchfield does in his work is show motion, movement and vibrations. He loved to visually interpret the sounds
he heard in the nature around him.
In the studio, for his final piece (below), Max chose to make something completely different, a watercolour of a whale (which reminded him of the big blue whale on the ceiling at the Museum of Natural History).
The instructor, Jesse, kindly invited the parents to also make watercolours, "since you probably don't have an opportunity to make art everyday in your lives." And all the parents did. Jesse said it made for a richer experience to have children painting side by side with their parents.
The tableful of the children (and their parents) watercolour paintings at the end of the hour of painting, laid out for everyone to see and talk about.
Max's exuberant and colorful watercolour of an ocean scene of a blue whale and divers and fishing on the left. My wc of a dragonfly flying over dandelions and a secret swim hole under the full moon, on the right. Most importantly, Max and I made a wonderful mother/son memory,
painting and drawing side by side.
Tomorrow my father, Tom Forrestall and brother Frank Forrestall set off for Israel for an extraordinary painting tour organized by the Atlantic Jewish Council. This trip has been months in the planning and we are thrilled and excited for all the adventures and art making that lie ahead, for both of them. They will begin their trip in Jerusalem for several days, then travel to Tel Aviv. Dad and Frank will be with an organised group for the first week, and then on their own traveling to various parts of the country to paint. My brother Frank, a very talented film maker, will document dad's painting in various locations around the country.
