Hans Heysen - Sheep, The Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky, We Gather Together - Adrian Valerius

 In the excitement of Thanksgiving preparations and celebration with family this week, I forgot all about publishing this post I had prepared so, sorry it's late....  Hope your celebration was meaningful.... 

 Happy Thanksgiving!  We have so much to be thankful for!!  Don't miss the link to a lovely Thanksgiving medley at the end of this post....

This is our last painting by Hans Heysen and seems to me to be typical of his work.  The huge, wonderful trees and the far distant view, with a few cattle or sheep.  Such lovely colors are in his sky and in the middle distance and far off mountains!  Cool colors like blues and blue-greens make things recede while warm golds and browns bring things forward.  Notice also how he uses the sizes of trees to give you a feeling of distance.  The tree on the right is quite a bit smaller, as well as greyed in color and having less detail than the trees on the left, making it look distant.  Then look at the tiny trees in the distance which are miniscule in comparison with the two in the front that dominate the picture.  I love how he uses such lovely colors on the tree trunk, pinks, violet and blues as well as the golds and orange.  If you enjoy watercolor - this would be a fun painting to copy, even just the trees in the foreground.  

Let's finish up The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky this week. 

I hope to spend December celebrating the birth of Christ in art, music and poetry, but this week we'll have one more Thanksgiving poem in the form of a hymn.  We Gather Together is a favorite of mine.  The words are below and a link to aYoutube video of children singing this hymn:  We Gather Together ,by Adrian Valerius.

We Gather Together Hymn

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!


And a lovely Thanksgiving Medley - Thanksgiving Medley

Hans Heysen - Onions, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky and Father We Thank Thee, by Daniel J. Batchellor

I'm not sure if it's the costumes, the ship masts, or the building, but this painting makes me think of Holland.
This picture is not a quality reproduction and loses something if you blow it up so I'm also going to feature another painting by Hans Heysen today.  Last week we talked about painting fruit or vegetables - here is one of onions!  Simple but beautiful.  The colors are mostly golds, browns and blacks, yet the colors sing and are lovely!  I love how he manages to make that skin off to the left look almost transparent and the light shines off each onion as well as the bowl brim and the glass bottle.This would be a great time to see what fruits or vegetables you have on hand and try your hand at reproducing it, using whatever medium you enjoy most - or better yet, try a couple different mediums!  

 We continue this week with The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.  You can start wherever you left off.  

For our poem this week - a lovely hymn sung here by children, Father We Thank Thee by Daniel J. Batchellor.

        Father, We Thank Thee

Father, we thank Thee for the night,
And for the pleasant morning light;
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair.
Help us to do the things we should,
To be to others kind and good;
In all we do, in work or play,
To love Thee better day by day.

Hans Heysen - Pears and Grapes, Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker Ballet, Lydia Maria Child - Thanksgiving Day

The yellow of these pears against the dark purple and green of the grapes is so wonderful!  You might try coloring or painting a couple of grapes with your children.  It's fun to try to make them look round and shiny by shading and highlights..  Somehow Hans Heysen has managed to give them that frosted or powdery look that grapes often have.  Fruit and vegetables make good subjects for trying your hand at painting.  You can paint them live or take a picture and paint from that.  Sometimes it's easier to paint from a picture as it's already flat like your painting.

Our music for the next couple weeks is the The Nutcracker Ballet by Tchaikovsky.  It's almost an hour and a half long so perhaps you would like to listen to about a half hour a week.

We are still enjoying the poems we are memorizing by John Donne, but I  thought we'd take a break from challenging new poems by him to enjoy something for Thanksgiving - this  familiar poem celebrating gathering with family for the holiday is by Lydia Maria Child:

               Thanksgiving Day
Over the river and through the wood,
  To grandfather's house we go
    The horse knows the way
    To carry the sleigh
  Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the wood--
  Oh, how the wind does blow!
    It stings the toes
    And bites the nose,
  As over the ground we go.

Over the river and through the wood,
  To have a first-rate play.
    Hear the bells ring,
    "Ting-a-ling-ding!"
  Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the wood
  Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
    Spring over the ground,
    Like a hunting-hound!
  For this is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river and through the wood,
  And straight through the barnyard gate.
    We seem to go
    Extremely slow,--
  It is so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the wood--
  Now grandmother's cap I spy!
    Hurrah for the fun!
    Is the pudding done?
  Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!

Hans Heysen - The South Coast, Tubby the Tuba, John Donne - A Lame Beggar

Another lovely landscape painting by Hans Heysen.  I love the blues and turquoise in the water and the contrasting lights and darks in the sharp rocks in the foreground of this painting titled, "The South Coast".  This scene appears to be viewed from a lofty height because of the size of the animals grazing on the nearest plateau.  The painting is  69.7 x 90 cm which is just over 27x35 inches or about 2 feet by 3 feet.  I'd love to see the original!  There are so many details I want to look at more closely.

The South Coast (Oil on Canvas by Hans Heysen)

This weeks piece of music Tubby the Tuba, is a fun cartoon that introduces several instruments from the orchestra focusing on a Tuba named Tubby. You can watch a really old version of it here.

Today's poem by John Donne is just two lines long - a play on words....

      A Lame Beggar

I am unable, yonder beggar cries,
To stand, or move; if he say true, he lies.