Mother Nature Art Lessons

The Author of Kids' Computer Creations and Crayons and Computers offers several lessons which tie in with the study of nature and habitats. The author, Carol Sabbeth will help you explore landscape art while comparing the art of three famous landscape artists: John Constable, Claude Monet, and Grandma Moses. She offers some background information about each of the artists and offers lessons based on art concepts such as perspective and use of color or patterns.

Her goal as a computer art teacher is to show that the computer is just one of many tools for developing creativity. Traditional art tools as well as the computer can be used to complete the projects she suggests.

Visit her site to see the monthly projects and archives of lessons at http://Members.aol.com/Art1234567/Art.html or try one of these projects:

• Curly Bird is a paper bird which can be created using the pattern provided or created using a computer paint program such as Kid Pix, HyperStudio, Kids Works Deluxe or the paint section of a word processing package. This project is tied into lessons on the use of warm colors.

• The Colors of Mother Nature lesson introduces patterns from nature and talks about William Morris, an artist who designed many things to decorate a home. All his creations were inspired by patterns and colors in nature. Links are provided to two craft projects - making a paper quilt and focus on nature.

• Find the Fish is a lesson dealing with camouflage in nature and how animals can blend into their surroundings. The craft project can be printed out as a pattern or done using any of the computer paint programs such as Kid Pix, HyperStudio, Kids Works Deluxe or the paint section of a word processing package. A link back to the month's lesson is provided.