Summer School | Art | Henri Rousseau

Finally got into the swing of our summer schedule. Only took me half the summer! Okay granted, we did VBS and swimming lessons have been kicking our bums. But still.

Here we are doing our second art project of the summer - inspired by Henri Rousseau. He was a pretty fantastic painter - of jungle scenes! Even though many art critics in his day didn't think much of his work, he did.

I love it when people are confident like that. Not the "I'm so awesome (even though I'm kind of a jerk about it)" kind of confidence but the "just know what I like and I like my art" kind of confidence. 

We ventured outside in the sweltering desert for some leaves to make these prints. Which turned out to be harder than I thought, considering most the plants around us look like ... um... cactus.

All you need: paper, green paint(s), plate/flat bowl, brayer (it's a foamy paint roller, basically).

Pretty fantastic.

#2 kid went right ahead and drew some animals in her jungle scene. #1 kid is planning to draw some monkeys (with help from here) and glue them in later.