Fine Art
When choosing activities for older kids I try to link it to fine art where I can. Exposing children to art appreciation doesn’t have to be on a field trip to a museum, although I recommend that too. This would make a beautiful gift for a mom or grandma for Mother’s Day, especially if you made a group of 3 or 4 and put it in a nice box.
- Gather your materials. You will need glass beads, magnets, rubber cement, a pencil, pictures of your choice and scissors. * I just want to say that I am not ruining a perfectly good book, I was gifted a duplicate and have been saving it for art projects.
- Start by choosing your pictures, if you are using an art book this will give your child a chance to look through many choices, and gives you a chance to ask them what they like and why, or why not.
- Trace your bead over the picture with a pencil.
- Cut out
- Cover the bottom of the bead with rubber cement, not too thick but it should have a nice layer of it.
- Add your picture
- Glue your magnet on and let dry.
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I love art, I specifically love Henri Matisse. My love affair with his work started many years ago now my son has a Matisse print in his room and I look at it every night as I snuggle him to bed. I think exposing our kids to fine art at a young age is a great idea, if they can find Dora in a busy toy store, why not appreciate Matisse, Klimt or Picasso? Matisse is a great artist to try to copy because in his final years he didn’t paint, instead he used painted cut outs. It’s easy to collage in his style for a great tribute. We made our version of Matisse’s masterpiece
“The Snail”.
- Gather your materials. You will need multicolor scrap paper, plain white paper, scissors and glue.
- Look at the masterpiece you want to pay homage to. I love this painting and when I showed my son a few different ones he liked this the best.
- Cut the paper needed. I tried to copy the shapes and colors best I could but there really is no need to be exact. If your child is able to cut let them cut it out.
- Add glue to the edges.
- Add the frame pieces.
- Have your child ad some glue and start placing pieces.
At first I was directing it and things were fine, but then I heard ” I do it!” so I conceded. If I am going to preach allowing your child to do it, I best practice that too. - Add the rest.
- Let dry .
Georges Seurat is the artist best known for pointillism, which is essentially a painting made of many many tiny dots of color to create a large homogeneous work of art. For examples of his work click here and here. When teaching children about fine art I think that a great way to do it , is to have them try it out. Making images using this technique is hard and will foster some appreciation after testing it out! Here’s how.
- Gather your materials. If you have some art books on hand grab a few , or check some out of your local library, although some pictures online are good, being able to manipulate the pictures helps. You will need some markers ( more colors the better) and paper.
- Look at some of the paintings with your child, make note of how from far away they look like regular painting you would paint normally.
Up close you can see the individual dots. 
Ask them if they think this would be easier or harder than normal- would it take more time? Let’s find out! - Let them go! Have extra paper on hand because this can get frustrating, it’s not easy. Show them how the marker can be used on the side to make a large dot
and on it’s tip to make a small one.
- Suggest using different shades colors for effect.
- Go clean the house cause this might take them a while ! If your child is getting frustrated , suggest doing the outline of drawings with the points, and filling in the rest traditionally.
Field Trip !
Museums are fantastic places for kids, the coolest thing I have ever seen as a teacher was a group of 4 year olds in Paris sketching a Rodin sculpture. They were sprawled everywhere and even now many years later that memory reminds me how vital art is!
So here is a list of fine art museums with Georges Seurat’s works!
