I try not to play favorites, but when it comes to studying artists with children, Claude Monet is definitely in my top ten! I love that Monet returned through his paintings to the same scene repeatedly --I think this can instill a reverence for the beauty of repetition and practice in children. I don't necessarily favor his sense of perfectionism (though I can relate to it on a personal level). And although Monet was known for his paintings, I love to study his works with children using mixed mediums.
I simply cannot get enough of Monet's paintings of the Japanese bridge. And since it is one sight he returned to repeatedly over the course of many seasons and many years, I decided we make this an art study we returned to over the course of many days. Breaking up a project or art activity into several days' work does a few things.
- it allows for drying time and the use of a variety of techniques and art mediums
- it conveys a sense of importance in children's art: you do not need to "produce" something that you "finish" right away, rather, you can return to your work as the inspiration strikes and add on as you see fit
- it conveys a sense of value in the time spent to create art in general--this is not a rushed process, but rather a process led by desire and inspiration
For our study we used:
- stretched canvas
- tempura paint
- Q-tips
- Cotton balls
- Clothes pins
- blue cardstock
- scissors
- floral patterned fabric scraps
- sequins
- rhinestones
- flower, butterfly and bug stickers
- white glue
- paint brushes
- Mod Podge* (I did this part for the boys)
You can use any or all of these materials and add in your own ideas as well.
On day 1, I set out blank canvases, a print of Monet's work and my own interpretation. Along with that, each boy's station was set with a pallet of tempura paints in red, yellow, blue, green, white and black and some Q-tips for painting with. Although this work was not done with the technique of Pointillism, I love the use of Q-tips for painting with little hands of all ages and levels.
Speaking of little hands, these boys got really hands on (and elbow deep) with their painting! And that was great! We keep wipes and rags nearby and particularly S, who is rather averse to getting painty, was quite enthralled with the sensation that morning so we went with it. I encouraged them to fill the canvas with color, but let them explore the means by which they did so independently.
Mixing colors, getting dirty, trying different strokes and techniques were all encouraged! There are many right ways to fill a canvas and even white space was allowed. I am often hesitant to set out my own "example" of a piece of art as I don't want to sway the process of process art. I do on occasion provide one and one reason that I do make these exceptions is that I also don't like to talk a lot during process art experiences. I find that when we truly work from a "blank canvas" state, I lean toward explaining more and I'd rather explain less. Certainly, process art in its own right requires no explanations or samples. In its truest form, it is wholly a child-led experience from the selection of materials to how they are used to what is created. In these "hybrid" versions of art experience in which I aim to invite the children to create something in a particular theme or style, I like to use objects to channel that lens. This may be an actual work of art or a still life object/collection of objects and/or my own example.
On the second installment (which we actually did that afternoon), we glued on our pre-cut cardstock Japanese bridge. I did this in advance so the glue would be dry and the boys could get right to painting. I have also seen versions of this painting replicated with children using masking tape for the bridge and the children paint over the tape. When the tape is removed, a resist remains in which the space shaped like the bridge is left white. This would be another lovely way to explore this work (you would incorporate that in the first day rather than at this point).
This time, still working loosely within the technique of pointillism, I decided to create some clothespin brushes with pompoms in two sizes, one smaller and one larger. Simply pinching a pompom or cotton ball between the clothespins will make your paintbrush. They are great for dabbing, dotting, or schmearing and streaking! I especially love the small size of these brushes for developing hands. Shorter utensils are infinitely easier for little hands to control (think golf sized pencils, etc.).
Y, as usual, went at it with gusto. He dabbed and dotted his bridge and even the canvas around it. I loved the effect of layering new paint on the dried paint! Particularly with tempura paints as opposed to their more permanent and bold acrylic or oil counterparts, using many layers goes a long way toward brightening the results. S, ever the minimalist, added one dab to a corner of his bridge!
After their work had dried, I added a layer of Mod Podge to seal the paint and the cardstock collage. The canvas was now ready for our final installment, stickers, fabric, sequins and rhinestones.
On my own version, I only added some flower stickers, but by the time the boys were ready for this step, I thought, why not add in a few other options and some glue--especially for my younger artist who can't yet peel his own stickers off, but can paint glue just about everywhere and stick stuff on it!
My sister was truly a Francophile growing up, and I remember her carrying around a toy doll that looked like Linnea from Christina Bjork's book Linnea in Monet's Garden. Years later, she would spend a semester abroad in France and became fluent in French! This book, now translated by Joan Sandin with its incredible illustrations by Lena Anderson, is one of my favorite ones in our collection. It tells the story of a young girl visiting Paris and seeing many of the infamous sights of Monet's paintings and life in her travels. It is quite wordy for the preschool years, but S enjoyed some time on my lap picking and choosing parts to hear read aloud and for days afterward, he carried that book everywhere we went. I'm not sure if it was the illustrations that drew him in or knowing how much his aunt liked it as little girl. We even took it along with us in the car on our way to the local botanical gardens here where we visited a real Japanese garden and even saw a similar bridge.
Although this is a wrap-up of our Art & Artist's theme in this series, we will surely be revisiting artists inspired by gardens and nature throughout our summer at Sprout Scouts Playcamp. This week, we are busy with butterflies, bees and other bugs and insects. Art is an integral part of all that we do here, and we have even been integrating some travel art activities and messy art activities outdoors. We'll be back soon to tell you all about it and more! Until then...
Happy Playing!
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