Any time that you can combine fun with learning, you have really set the stage for something meaningful for your children. Teaching children about artists might involve looking at books about a particular artist or visiting an art gallery or museum. An even better way to get your kids excited about discovering an artist's work is by having them complete an art project mimicking the style of that artist.
Joan Miro, a Spanish master of Surrealism, has many works particularly suitable for a children's art project. Consider a work of his such as "People and Dog in the Sun." You will note as you view the painting, that essentially this is a painting with whimsical stick figures surrounded by circles and stars. Provide large pieces of paper and begin by having children draw a stick figure in action then adding a few circles and stars. Create the stars by using lines and dots, as Miro did. Once the circles, stars and stick figure are drawn, trace them in black crayon and then use watercolors to paint the circles and background.
Wassily Kandinsky is another great artist to consider teaching your children about, and his abstract works are particularly suitable for kid art projects. Begin by showing your children images of one of his works, such as "Color Studies," which basically is a diamond created out of many colors. "Squares with Concentric Circles," is another suitable painting, and all children need are squares of paper in which they draw or paint colorful circles. Explore further by using something other than crayon or marker and hand your child some chalk or oil pastels. For more advanced artists, consider creating a work in the style of "Composition X," a beautiful collage-like work of Kandinsky's that begins with a sheet of large black paper. Use oil pastels or crayon or good quality chalk to color intersecting shapes.
Another artist that children will find inspirational and relatively easy to mimic is Paul Klee. Begin by showing children some of his paintings, such as "Red Balloon," "Castle and Sun," and "Senecio." The latter painting is a great project for kids. Children simply create a head by tracing a big circle and then adding straight lines for the neck, dividing the head in half with a straight line and adding touching eyes and squares for the mouth. Trace the lines with permanent marker and color in the picture very thickly using pastels. Then paint over the picture using acrylic paint. After the paint dries, you can scrape it away with an old credit card, leaving only traces of the paint.
Children also can create an amazing photo collage in the style of David Hockney. You can look through a variety of magazines and find a nature scene, a portrait or just about any image. Have the children cut the picture into rectangles and squares and then re-paste the image together on paper, taking care to overlap pieces slightly and also rotate pieces here and there. It can be fun to have children work separately on the same image and see how each picture turns out differently.
You can also purchase and download PDF art murals from websites such as ArtProjectsForKids.org. This is a great way to introduce your child to an artist or work of art that might be more difficult to imitate, such as Van Gogh or Monet. These PDFs are divided into squares with a portion of the painting drawn on each square. Children simply color each piece and then arrange them and paste them on a large piece of paper to recreate a collage of a famous painting, such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Klimt's "Tree of Life."
Joan Miro, a Spanish master of Surrealism, has many works particularly suitable for a children's art project. Consider a work of his such as "People and Dog in the Sun." You will note as you view the painting, that essentially this is a painting with whimsical stick figures surrounded by circles and stars. Provide large pieces of paper and begin by having children draw a stick figure in action then adding a few circles and stars. Create the stars by using lines and dots, as Miro did. Once the circles, stars and stick figure are drawn, trace them in black crayon and then use watercolors to paint the circles and background.
Wassily Kandinsky is another great artist to consider teaching your children about, and his abstract works are particularly suitable for kid art projects. Begin by showing your children images of one of his works, such as "Color Studies," which basically is a diamond created out of many colors. "Squares with Concentric Circles," is another suitable painting, and all children need are squares of paper in which they draw or paint colorful circles. Explore further by using something other than crayon or marker and hand your child some chalk or oil pastels. For more advanced artists, consider creating a work in the style of "Composition X," a beautiful collage-like work of Kandinsky's that begins with a sheet of large black paper. Use oil pastels or crayon or good quality chalk to color intersecting shapes.
Another artist that children will find inspirational and relatively easy to mimic is Paul Klee. Begin by showing children some of his paintings, such as "Red Balloon," "Castle and Sun," and "Senecio." The latter painting is a great project for kids. Children simply create a head by tracing a big circle and then adding straight lines for the neck, dividing the head in half with a straight line and adding touching eyes and squares for the mouth. Trace the lines with permanent marker and color in the picture very thickly using pastels. Then paint over the picture using acrylic paint. After the paint dries, you can scrape it away with an old credit card, leaving only traces of the paint.
Children also can create an amazing photo collage in the style of David Hockney. You can look through a variety of magazines and find a nature scene, a portrait or just about any image. Have the children cut the picture into rectangles and squares and then re-paste the image together on paper, taking care to overlap pieces slightly and also rotate pieces here and there. It can be fun to have children work separately on the same image and see how each picture turns out differently.
You can also purchase and download PDF art murals from websites such as ArtProjectsForKids.org. This is a great way to introduce your child to an artist or work of art that might be more difficult to imitate, such as Van Gogh or Monet. These PDFs are divided into squares with a portion of the painting drawn on each square. Children simply color each piece and then arrange them and paste them on a large piece of paper to recreate a collage of a famous painting, such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Klimt's "Tree of Life."
About the Author:
Kate Halfey likes blogging about art projects for kids. For further information about awesome art projects for kids or to find flower art projects for kids, please check out the ArtProjectsForKids website now.
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