Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 3

 We took a little break in our Kids Art Challenge to go on an adventure, but we are back, recovered, and ready to rejoin the real life again.  Before we left, we fit in our third art challenge and it was the perfect way to break up our 6 weeks of art projects.  I am so glad that, even though we were busy packing and doing 4th of July stuff, we still fit it in, because it really got my kids excited for the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.

Picasso is a really fun artist to talk about because he had so many styles and periods. Modern Art is really fun to teach kids because its so flexible to what the child sees.  We read the books Picasso and Mootisse and this Picasso book.  (We'll talk about Matisse in week 4).  The first book is just a fictional book based on the friendship of the two artists and the second is a great resource for kids with lots of pictures of Picasso's art.  It talks about his life and the periods of his art in a way that draws the kids in and gets them enjoying art.

After reading about Picasso and studying his art work, Weston was so excited to go search for his work when we visited the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.  He was able to tell me a specific painting was painted during Picasso's Blue Period and then he was pointing out Cubism left and right.  There was a proud mom moment where I saw him really enjoy art!  I think it's also proof that spending a little bit of time each week studying artists and their art work is so important!

One thing I loved about the book, Pigasso and Mootisse, was that it showed the friendship that developed between both Picasso and Matisse and then walking through the art gallery where that friendship was on display was just epic!  The kids were so excited to see Picasso's work (as well as Kandinksky, Seraut, Monet, and Van Gogh. . . all artists we are going to be covering in this challenge.

But, let's get back to the project of the week.  This week, we are talking about Picasso's style Cubism.  This project was so fun and fairly easy that we really enjoyed relaxing while painting (even though we should have been packing up our stuff!). 

  We started out by drawing a simple picture on top of water color paper.  We just used pencil. 

 Then we drew horizontal and vertical lines across the page.  We used the width of a ruler because it was easier for the kids to keep track of where the next line went.  My goal is to have the boys do their art entirely on their own.  This is their masterpiece. . . not mine (even though I enjoy doing it along side them!). 

 Then we used different colors and drew in our spaces.  The goal was to make them contrast so the actual picture cubes stand out and you can tell what the original picture was.  Ethan realized after the fact that a blue whale was hard to get to stand out using the same colors for the water.  Weston started out great, but after his sabors were done, he was done.  I still am loving the way it came out.  And who, knows, maybe it will get finished by the end of summer?  Maybe that's just me dreaming.  ha ha.  Also, just because someone will probably ask. . . no the artichoke hearts and pineapple were not used in the making of this art project!  ha ha!

 Each week, I am pretty sure I say that it's my favorite project yet, but this one really was!  And then seeing them the following week get excited about art in a museum.  Oh, this mamma heart is so happy! 

 Here are a few other books about Picasso:
Picasso and the Girl with the Pony Tail, by Laurence Anholt
100 Pablo Picassos, by Violet Lemay
Who was Pablo Picasso, by True Kelly
The Three Musicians, by Veronique Massenot

 You can find the rest of the Summer Pinterest Challenge for 2019 at these links:
Week 1: Kandinsky

Week 2: Seurat

If you are joining us, feel free to use the following hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge

 I hope you are all finding time to get creative this summer in some way or another!  Thanks for stopping by!