We painted frescos after reading about Giotto and studying his painting The Lamentation of Christ. Our first grader took this project seriously remembering that Giotto was one of the first artists to show expression in the faces of the people he painted. She also took note of how expensive and rare blue paint was in Giotto’s time. She decided to paint her own version of Giotto’s Lamentation. She was very proud when she completed her painting and as we admired her work she gasped and exclaimed that she had forgotten to put Jesus in the painting! She did have many things working in her mind as she painted her Lamentation. I bet Jesus will forgive her.
We had some technical difficulties with this project. We smoothed spackle compound on cardboard and let it dry to start. The cardboard was not thick enough and curled up. We tried to flatten the pieces out before we painted but were worried about cracking the now dry spackle. We painted with water colors after sketching a scene lightly on the plaster. The paint made the pieces curl even more. If we did this type of fresco again, we would improve it by using thicker cardboard and taping the cardboard down both when the plaster is drying and then again when the paint is drying.
Our fourth grader says that he really liked this project and the best part was working with spackle and a spackle knife. Our first grader says she loved the project except for one thing, she forgot to paint Jesus. She recommends that other children try this project.
This project is from the wonderful art and art appreciation curriculum by Artistic Pursuits.
