Oh how I love Van Gogh and the Picassos really made me proud with this piece. Irises are not just difficult flowers to draw they are also turned this way and that in this painting... naturally because it is a field and our old friend perspective also comes into play because the relative size of the flowers and the level of detail changes as your eye moves up the painting to give the impression of depth and distance. All these complexities were not lost on my little Picassos :) Take a look at their completed paintings! If you missed the first part of this lesson you can find it here.
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This class was all about Van Gogh so naturally I had to talk a bit about what Van Gogh the man was like and what may have drove him to paint the way he did and to supplement my blabbing they took a look at a little kid-friendly biography :) You can find it above. Last term my Doodlebugs painted Monet's Irises so today while introducing the Picassos to Van Gogh's interpretation of the same subject they took a look at both paintings side by side and we explored the differences. It was really easy to spot the characteristics of each artist's style and talk about what made their painting unique to them. The pictures they looked at are below.. Monet's is on the left and Van Gogh's on the right. This is a cool way to point out that although we may all be painting the same subject matter you can have a completely different interpretation from your neighbour and this is what makes art and for that matter... life, so rich and so beautiful! But since Van Gogh is our master artist for today we followed his example and produced our version of Irises painting in his style. This painting can really be intimidating but the Picassos took it on one piece at a time and broke it down to draw in phases. They got to really lay the paint on thick... which let's face it most kids love and also explored a technique called double-loading. Some of my Picassos really had to fight the urge to blend the colours too much and also had to focus on their brushstrokes so we could get that lively texture that Van Gogh is so famous for... but they really got into it and their pieces are coming along beautifully! Today we talked about the famous artist Claude Monet and his paintings and my Doodlebugs watched this little video on the artist. Then to bring them around to our painting for the day we looked at pictures of real irises and also of Monet's Iris paintings like the ones below. The Doodlebugs then painted their version of his Irises :) To get the Monet-effect they held 2 oil pastels at the same time and dragged them on their side to create a blurry look and to give the impression of texture. Next they painted in stems using different shades of green and finally they added in the purple Irises and yellow middles!
My Doodlebugs don't need to have a knowledge of abstract art or the use of colour in art to express emotion... at this age they simply know what they like and I haven't come across a child yet who isn't happy recreating Kandinsky's concentric circles :)
Firstly, cutting a circle at the age of 5 can be a hard task. Secondly, piecing together a whole work of art from several smaller parts is a skill that is only just developing at this age. The Doodlebugs need practice recognizing what goes where and in this sense a collage is just like building a puzzle! All in all a very cute project packed with lots of skill-building value. Take a look!
Laurel Burch gained much acclaim for her lively depictions of cats. One of the things I admire about this artist is her refusal to let her real life pain stop her from creating and living the life she wanted. Her work is extremely lively and almost child-like, which is probably why children enjoy it so much :)
She uses simple shapes and lots of colour and patterns in a way that is bound to make anyone looking at her art smile. The Doodlebugs drew and painted a cat imitating her style today. It's a great way for these little ones to think about their shapes and colours!
Today the Doodlebugs got introduced to the artist Claude Monet. We took a look at this cute little story about Monet's garden and then we looked at 2 pictures for a little compare and contrast fun!
I asked the Doodlebugs what they noticed about these 2 paintings and guided them along to discover that one painting was clear while the other was all blurry. A very basic first step towards appreciating art periods but they were keen to shout out the things they saw and what they liked!
Then we went about trying to recreate the blurry effect in our own little Monet-inspired painting! Take a look at our stunning watercolour creations!
Paul Klee's art might appear to be simple but there are some pretty high-level ideas underlying them. Of course, this little video is quite enough for my little Doodlebugs' introduction and then we got right into the shapes and colours of the little painting Cat and Bird :)
This afternoon we took a look at one of Pablo Picasso's famous paintings entitled Bouquet of Flowers. Picasso is best known for developing the cubist style of painting, but his work spanned many decades and he created works of art in all media and in many different styles. I drew their attention to the simple lines and bright colours used in the painting. Picasso's painting was done for a peace demonstration in Stockholm Sweden in 1958, (Picasso also designed the international symbol of peace the Dove) but we will mimic his simple style as a symbol of love for Mother's Day! They simply traced their hands and drew in several flowers close to the top of the page. I gave them the option to draw in different types of flowers and drew some ideas up on the board. I know some of my 6 year olds might look at Picasso's simple flowers with disdain... but I didn't expect every single one of them to snub Picasso's flowers! lol Regardless of the type of flowers they chose to use I think we still captured the essence of the painting. Take a look at their beautiful creations :) This Brazilian artist creates such delightful art that his style just comes naturally to children! An easy breezy day in the art room today... showed them an inspiration piece, reiterated the concept of a pattern and away they went! Drawing the little cat, choosing their own patterns, colours and paints. Thursday Picassos took their turn at imitating the style of Romero Britto :) Georgia O'Keeffe is well-known for her beautiful paintings of giant flowers. She painted as if she zoomed her lens onto just a part of the flower and the effect was both unique and familiar. Of course, the children looked at a presentation of the life and work of Georgia O'Keeffe and we delved into our project. We looked at some of her paintings of flowers and then each child chose a flower out of some options they were presented with to draw and paint in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe.
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Be a fly on the wall in our art room! Take a look at what we do, how we do it and the smiles that I get to see week after week :) Archives
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