As Degas spent hours upon hours indoors studying the postures, the movement, the flow of the ballerinas and the hopefull ballerinas, he began to realize that it was more than just dance, is was a true art form. Degas was surrounded by Impressionist Artists, who loved to paint outside and capture the movement of people and lighting and objects, where as Degas loved watching a true art form in its own right. Degas watched as little girls became young ladies and young women master an art form that they only thought to be a chance at a job, at a life. It was Degas passion, his life to study the ever changing art form. The young children up to young woman were like his own, so inside he was just like a proud father.

I can relate to this book in the fact that, practice make perfect. One does not master something over night, it takes lots of hard practice and dedication to in order to perfect or even close to perfect. Over the years therehave been times when I have given up simply because it was to hard and I never had the confidence to keep trying.

I would relate this book to my kids by playing basketball with them. The kids that I work with daily have some sort of special need but the task of bouncing a basketball is something that they all can do, with practice. I would explain to them to never ever give up trying, the more they practice the better they will get at bouncing the ball and then I would give them each their own ball.

If we as parents and teacher start at an early age teaching our kids that giving up isn't an option, and practice makes perfect, I believe that we would have a lot more kids that have confidence in themselves and wouldn't give up on school or in life. ( )

I wanted to be a ballerina when I was a little girl - didn't we all, that or a princess, but it wasn't something my parents were willing to let me do. So I drew and painted and fell in love with a bronze statue of a ballerina in a style after Degas and eventually I found Degas and fell in love with his pictures too. I think what is special about Degas was that his work was all action and his ability to paint light with a delicate, but enlivening touch was quite marvellous even among the wonderful impressionists of the time.

Goodreads doesn't have the old, calfskin-bound book I had, so I'm adding this one instead. ( )

Degas’s dance paintings and are some of my favorite in all of art. I love the way he captured the dancers in different poses, doing various aspects of dance and performance. This book was interesting in that it told about how he captured their essence on canvas. I especially loved his drawings. It demonstrates his process and how he began his paintings. Added to that is the first had account of one of the dancers that he painted. That part of the book is truly priceless. I would recommend this book for students in grades 3-6. Lesson ideas would include an art class teaching the process of Degas, and biography. Students could talk about how important the senses are to us. Degas was losing his eyesight. A discussion could center around how this would affect his work. ( )

Edgar Degas loved painting dancing girls. He was living in France and painted from 1855 to 1905. He studied the girls practicing at the studio and also at Operas. He was very different from the impressionist, artists who liked painting outdoors. He liked studying the girls, watching them and gossiping with them. He did not paint the girls as they were. Sometimes, he added bows, ribbons, and sashes to the paintings to add color. As time passed, his eyes were getting weaker but Degas could not give up painting. He continued painting and later worked with pastels as well. With simple strokes and smears, he was able to portray movement in his work. His last drawing was completed in 1905 and Degas ended his career as an artist.

This is a biography of Edgar Degas, a French artist. The story is quite fast paced, with lots of quotes from the artist and his friends. The book contains Degas’ artworks, from plain sketches to elaborate paintings. Each artwork has its own description that details the image and tells the readers what to look for. The paintings provided are famous that readers might come across them in websites or in museums. At the end of the book, there is a full biography of Edgar Degas for interested readers.

This is a great introductory book about Edgar Degas and also into artists and their artwork. Readers will marvel at the detailed and vivid world of dance, painted by Degas, the master painter of dancing girls. ( )