Artsy!

I wish I could paint. It is one of those talents that I have always envied, that and dancing. I am hopelessly terrible at both of those things.  The truth is I am a lot closer to autistic than artistic and not like the awesome- high- functioning- card- counting- in- Vegas autistic, like the really bad-there-must-be-something-more-than-autism-going-on-there autistic.  Anyway, that's not really the point. I just wish I could paint and dance. This week we have been doing a lot of painting.  It is awesome to paint when your little because even if it sucks your parents still love it. I think that is why my kids love painting, they always receive my highest praise.  To go along with this whole artsy-fartsy theme I came across a book called, The Girl with the Watering Can. It is based on a Renoir painting and ten other famous paintings that are on display at the National Gallery of Art in D.C.  The girl with the watering can jumps out of her painting and causes mischief all over the museum while she visits the other paintings.  We read it before we left and then set out to find this mischievous little cherub and her friends at the National Gallery of Art.

We discovered all of the paintings in the book but one which was on loan to another museum. In our searching we found lots of extraordinary artwork.  The boys even recognized some of the artists from their art appreciation classes at school. I was thoroughly impressed with how huge the National Gallery is and how many famous painters are featured. The kids also got treasure hunt books from the docent.  We couldn't complete all of the challenges in their treasure books (curse you parking meters). But, we will definitely be back.  It was really amazing and I am not entirely sure why we haven't been there before.  Just a side note, Harley and Nash had a knock-down-drag-out fight under this Van Gogh painting. I mean rolling around on the floor, punching, kicking and spitting at each other.  I think it was pretty obvious to those around us that we were only pretending to be cultured.

Atley insisted that I take a picture  next to Rembrandt's self-portrait. I think it is because Harley kept insisting that I looked "just like the guy in that picture."  I have to admit I am slightly depressed about the comparison.