Art & Artists in the Garden: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir has always been one of my favorite Impressionists! Impressionism is one of my favorite artistic techniques to introduce to children. The idea that art need not be an exact representation of what the artist sees, but rather an impression of the vision or even the feeling behind it is a beautiful way to empower young artists toward creativity without the restrictions of perfectionism. Pointillism, or the technique of creating impressionistic paintings through the use of many patterned dots, was a style that derived from Impressionists like Renoir. Although he was not known himself for this technique, I took my own artistic license in introducing it to my boys as we
explored his famous painting "A Girl with a Watering Can."

We used canvas this time and I love using canvas with children. If you can hold out for flash sales on multi-packs at your art supply store, this is a great medium to have on hand. Eager artists will love the opportunity to work on such a "grown up" surface and even those less prone to art projects and activities tend to be drawn to them when "real materials" are provided as opposed to the standard paper and crayons. I love stretched canvas already on frames because they are sturdy and ready to hang and display. I also provided a plastic pallet (available from art supply stores, Dollar Tree or online) with red, yellow, blue, green, black and white tempura paints. Acrylic paints would definitely give a bolder color, but I opted for something more washable since I had this set out at breakfast time.

Lastly, I set out a print of the original work. S got such a kick out a painting depicting a girl about his own age doing something he likes to do, watering the garden! I decided that using photos of the boys would be a wonderful way to capture that feeling on canvas.




I set one pallet on a recycled sushi tray and a few Q-tips. I wanted to invite and encourage mixing colors. I did not provide a sample this time, though I did discuss and demonstrate using the Q-tip for "dotting" and S immediately noted that you can also make lines and swirls and whirls! Y enjoyed using his fingertips for dotting as well.
Neither boy "filled the page" in the end and that was OK. I aim to not fear white space anymore than I fear a space that is covered from corner to corner! The final step once the paint had dried was to glue on a photo of each boy in his "garden" background. I painted a layer of Mod Podge overtop to seal everything in place. You could intentionally photograph your children holding a watering can if you wish or even add a picture of one. We left it simply "as is" and proudly displayed the results in our family gallery.

I love these little pallets (from Dollar Tree) because they store beautifully in a ziplock sandwich bag. No paint goes to waste and you can rinse and reuse once you get to that point!

We'll be back soon! Happy Playing!