Imitating the Greats

We kicked off our summer with art appreciation week.  On our first day, we tried our hand at imitating two great artists.  I checked out an art history book from the library so that we could read about the artists we chose and then we got to work.

First up - Piet Mondrain



I used the Making Art Fun website for a little background on the artist.  You can see his biography here.

#1 describes this artist as the guy that likes to paint red, yellow, and blue squares.  And, really she is right!  Though that is not all he did, that is what we focused on.  After thinking about it some, she decided that red, yellow and blue were not her favorites, and she chose red, orange and green. 

You need canvas (or paper, but the kids really feel like real artists when they are painting on canvas!), washable paint and some masking tape.  Tape off your squares, #1 did her own, I helped #2.  Then paint away.  Neither child wanted to go back and paint the white lines black to stay true to form, but that is ok, it is, after all art!

The second artist we imitated was Jackson Pollack. 




This one was really fun.  I used the storyboardtoys.com website for some background information on Jackson Pollack - you can find it here.  Mr. Pollack felt that he needed to be part of the art, he liked to walk around it, be near it.  His style is termed "action painting".  He used all sorts of different devices to paint with - knives, brooms, paint scrapers, etc.  We used brushes, forks, knives, spatulas, really anything I could find in the kitchen.  We also did this one outside!  That way they could be as messy as they wanted - and the grass looked great when we were finished. 

For this one, we just used a very heavy paper.  I think they turned out great!  The kids really had fun with this one and it would be a great party theme I think if you have an aspiring artist.

If you go to jacksonpollack.org you can create a piece of art using your mouse in his style.  Both the kids loved this (we did this first to get an idea of how the artist did it) and you can even print them out when you are done!

Hallie