Winslow Homer -- a great American artist

Thanks to a wonderful volunteer on the 4Real forum, we are studying Winslow Homer as our artist this month. We had so much fun today reading A Weekend with Winslow Homer by Ann Keay Beneduce. This is a fabulous kids' book written from an "autobiographical" viewpoint -- as if you got to spend a weekend chatting with this great artist about his life and work. We thoroughly enjoyed the book and found out lots of cool facts about him -- one of which was that he strongly believed in American artists painting American subjects (during his artistic era, most artists were tryin to copy European artists). He also believed in reality and strength in his works.

We then went slowly through a huge "coffee table" book called The Life and Works of Winslow Homer by Gordon Hendricks., which (sadly) is OOP. But check your library for this gem. It goes through from his birth in 1836 to his death in 1910. It's over 300 big pages (20" x 15"or so) and shows tons of his pictures. Including one that I'm so excited about.

Titled, Mending the Nets (or, "Far from Billingsgate") and painted in 1882 while in England, the picture is a lovely study of two women, basking in the sun and working. Can you tell why this one might be my favorite:










Yep, one of 'em is KNITTING socks! I love when I find knitting in great works of art.....