Artist Study: Picasso

This was our first real artist study, and it turned out to be fun. We spread it out over a month, reading a book here, painting a picture there. I started by printing out some pictures by Picasso and displayed them in prominent place so they would become familiar. These are on the door to our office/school room/laundry room.
Masterpiece of the Month gave us the direction for our first art project. It was a torn paper project inspired by "Mains aux Fleurs" (on the bottom right corner). Gracie had her own ideas as to how her art should look, so it was a good opportunity for me to bite my tongue and let her do her own thing. (She wanted to make sure I posted the picture in landscape fashion, the way she intended, rather than portrait fashion).

Art Projects for Kids shows how to create your own "blue period" (or yellow or red or green) portrait. A great way to teach basic facial feature placement and creating variations of colors by mixing with black and white paint. Picasso and Minou talks about Picasso's blue period and went nicely with our art project. Here's what Gracie's version, although she's in her "rose" period.

Another great children's book about Picasso is Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail which is written from the perspective of a girl that ended up modeling for several of Picasso's works.

Pablo Picasso (Artists of the 20th Century) We got this from Netflix. Not so exciting for a kindergartener.

Hopefully we'll get another artist study in before June!