Rembrandt's art lesson

For our art lessons this month we are studying Rembrandt and learning about light and shadows.  We began our learning by watching the Meet the Masters art curriculum and reading a few books on the artist.  While living abroad we had the privilege to travel to Amsterdam and visit Rembrandt's art studio which is now a museum.  We also saw many of his paintings in museums we toured.  Rembrandt's is one of my husband's favorite painters.

These were some of the books I had on the shelf about Rembrandt that the children and I read.  We also examined many of his paintings.  The children thought is art was very dark.

Next we began to work on the art assignment which was to look at shadowing using only black and white chalk or oil pastels.

It was a pretty hard concept for each of us to 

Drawing a windmill and then deciding which side the light would be  shining and then add the shading.

MarioFan's version of the assignment

Firedrake's version -- she tried to add background to her windmill 

My attempt at this style which wasn't too bad until I shaded the wrong side of the river in front of the windmill.  The kids caught my mistake:)