Saturday, 14 September 2013

Artists That Every Child Should Learn About

By Kate Halfey


Studies show that exposure to art has a positive effect on children and allowing your children to engage in art projects also has a positive effect. With so many wonderful artists and interesting styles of art, it can be difficult to choose which artists you can show to your children first. Here are some suggestions for fun art projects that will help you teach your children about a few prominent artists.

Vincent Van Gogh is certainly a household name, and this Dutch post-impressionist had a beautiful style all his own. Starry Night and Sunflowers are particularly beautiful works that will appeal to your children. For a Starry Night project, download a printable mural from a website such as ArtProjectsForKids.org. Your children can color all of the sections of the mural and then place the pieces back into the correct order. Then they will have a work that looks much like that of Van Gogh.

Claude Monet was the founder of the Impressionist movement, and his works are vivid, colorful and quite appealing to children. First, show them some examples of his work such as Woman With A Parasol and Water Lilies. To create colorful version of Water Lilies with your children, have them use oil pastels on a piece of white paper and have them draw a few lilies on the paper. Draw light green swirls around the base of each lily and a few white squiggles to show water movement. Finally, paint over the oil pastels with blue watercolors.

Of course, it is an excellent idea to show your children the many works of Pablo Picasso. Picasso is interesting not only because his works are interesting, but also because it is fun to look at how his work changes from his adolescence through to his adult years. His Cubist works are wonderful examples of how you don't have to be realistic when painting. Create some cool Picasso-inspired self portraits or facial pictures. Have children create a giant face that extends beyond the edges of the paper, use giant shapes for eyes that merge into a long, thin nose, and don't forget to add a mouth with two lips. You can color all of the parts in many different colors or just choose two or three colors in all.

Of course, there are many fine American painters, as well, and Georgia O'Keeffe is just one wonderful example. Her works demonstrate the beauty, strength and delicacy of nature with landscapes and paintings of large flowers. Instruct your children to sketch giant flowers in pencil and then color the flowers in with oil pastels or chalk pastels, which they can blend a bit with their fingers. For examples, an old calendar with flowers on them or a gardening book or magazine might have good examples.

Of course art doesn't have to look like any particular object in order to be art. Take the works of Jackson Pollock, for instance, who was classically trained, but decided that he wanted his art to have a bit more action. So he splattered paint in many colors on huge canvases and sometimes dripped or sloshed on colors. Children can do the same, splashing, dripping and swirling paint in any way they choose. This is a great outdoor activity. Just grab a bunch of paints, toss some large pieces of paper on the grass and let the kids create.




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