The art lessons I’ve been teaching to children ages 4-11 for the past 5 weeks have come to a close.
The theme of the course was “Learning From the Masters,” and each lesson I led the class in creating their own version of a painting from art history. It was a fun experience for me to get to delve into some master paintings myself while using these images to teach art principles that the children will be able to build on in the future.
Lesson 1 was Poplars on the Banks of the River Epte by Claude Monet:
Poplars on the Banks of the River Epte by Claude Monet
Here are the finished results from the class. You can see I gave the students paper taped to a piece of cardboard with masking tape. This way, when I peeled away the masking tape their painting was given crisp edges framed by a border of unpainted white paper.
I had my own 4-year-old son (who was too young to participate in the class) help me work out the kinks in my lesson plans. Here is his version:
Next was Georgia O’Keefe.
Blue Morning Glories by Georgia O’Keeffe
Some of the students’ finished work (beautiful, no?!):
And my 4-year-old’s version:
Then the iconic Starry Night:
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
My son’s version:
Then Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt:
Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt
And finally, Paul Klee’s Cat and Bird:
Cat and Bird by Paul Klee
By this point in the class, I could see their skills had improved. This class was probably my favorite in respect to the awesome results I saw from them!