There are too many wonderful artists from France to pass up, and so this week we chose to study Monet. We read Monet by Mike Venezia to learn about his life and artistic style. We also read a book by the same series called Picasso by Mike Venezia. (Picasso was actually Spanish but lived in France for most of his life, so we included him for this project.)
We began with a blank canvas. Each child chose his/her colors and the colors that s/he wanted to paint with. Each child, when given the choice between Picasso’s contemporary shapes or Monet’s more traditional subjects and style, chose to paint like Monet.
My Big Helper chose to paint a seascape like Monet. She wanted to paint a house along the shore and chose to paint in blues and browns.
My Little Man wanted to paint like Monet, but he is fascinated with fire, tornadoes, and spiders. His artwork always includes at least one of those. This time, fire won out. He described his picture as red fire and blue water. (We put the finished art on a shelf in his room – his color choice was perfect!)
I had hoped to hang My Big Helper’s art in her room, as well, but her colors completely clashed – but they do match our playroom. I hung it there on a nail, and she’s been quite proud to show off how she painted like Monet. 🙂
While we do many art projects in different styles, this was the first time that we studied a specific type of art or a specific artist and learned what made it unique. We’ll definitely be doing more of this. The kids loved it, and they are looking at paintings in a new way now.
How do you ‘do art’ with YOUR kids??
