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Famous artwork for kids? Really? Can kids enjoy great works of art? We think so! In fact, we believe that engaging with artists and their works can be a wonderful family activity. We’ve gathered together 7 creative ways to help you do just that. So, get ready to enjoy some amazing art pieces, get creative, and maybe learn something along the way.
You may have seen this photograph circulating around social media in the last few years. It was taken by Kirsty Kelly from Lanarkshire who graciously gave me permission to use the image. Kirsty’s photographs are gorgeous, but this one captures a wonderfully unscripted moment. It is a picture of Kirsty’s daughter responding to a picture of Anna Pavlova painted by John Lavery. I love it!
Great works of art have a way of inspiring our spirits and I have found that young children often connect deeply and intuitively with art. Kirsty’s photograph captures such a moment with her daughter- right as it is happening.
But what about famous artwork for kids? Can we really get our children inspired and excited about the visual arts? Can we make it fun? You bet we can! In the next few minutes I am going to show you exactly how. In a hurry? Use the table of contents below to jump straight to the section you want.
- Famous Artwork For Kids 101
- Books about Art For Kids
- 7 Creative Ways to Engage With Famous Artworks for Kids
- 1. Talk About the Art
- 2. Encourage Close Observations Of Visual Art
- 3. Famous Artwork For Kids: Engage the Imagination
- 5. Add Some Movement
- 6. Play Some Games
- 7. Famous Artwork For Kids: Make your Own Art
- The Benefits Of Enjoying Art With Kids
- Your Turn
Famous Artwork For Kids 101
Ready to get started with famous artwork for kids? Let’s dive straight in.
There are many different ways to enjoy art with your children. If possible I would encourage you to visit an art museum at least once. There is nothing quite like seeing great works of art in real life. Also most art galleries have fun children’s programs that you can enjoy as a family.
Having said that visiting an art museum with younger children can be tricky, so you may want to do some planning. Alison at No Time For Flashcards has written a great post about having fun with young children at an art museum.
If you are not able to visit a gallery you can still connect with your children over a good picture. The Internet is a treasure trove of images and information, as is your local library.
Books about Art For Kids
There are some fabulous books about artists that you can enjoy. Here are some geared towards children aged 6-8 years. Look at them with your kids but leave them lying about the house for your children to pick up and look through. Here are my favorites.
7 Creative Ways to Engage With Famous Artworks for Kids
So you have selected a great picture you want to share with your children like Children by the Sea in Guernsey by Pierre-August Renoir. What can you do with it?
Here are some suggestions.
1. Talk About the Art
I have found that children have a great deal to teach us. They tend to come to the art with very few preconceived ideas and see things that we adults often overlook. Here is a list of questions to get the discussion going.
- What do you notice first?
- Describe what else you see?
- Tell me the story you think the artist was trying to tell?
- What feeling words come to mind when you look at this picture?
- Can you tell me what you like best about this picture?
- What would you like to ask the artist?
- describe some of the shapes you see in this picture?
- How many colors can you see?
- If you could jump into this picture, where you go?
- What would you do?
- Describe what you see? Hear? Smell?
Obviously you wouldn’t want to ask all these questions, but select a few of them, ask away, and then listen carefully. You will be amazed at what you learn.
Don’t limit yourself to painting either. Kids can interact with and talk about all kinds of visual art, including sculpture. For example, The Thinker by Rodin
- What do you think this person is doing?
- Can you think of some feeling words to describe them?
- If you were the artist, what would you call this statue?
- What do you think this person is thinking about?
- How do sit when you are are thinking?
2. Encourage Close Observations Of Visual Art
If you choose a painting that is full of detail, like Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Bruegel, encourage the children to hone their powers of observation by playing a game like I spy.
“I spy with my little eye someone putting on skates.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has created a whole series of books that encourages kids to look carefully at great works of art and find small details. Kids love them. We couldn’t keep them on the shelves at the public library.
3. Famous Artwork For Kids: Engage the Imagination
Art has a way of engaging the imagination. Take advantage of this by inviting the children to make up stories about the painting. For example, suppose you’re looking at a painting like this one – A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.
Direct your children to choose someone in the picture and mimic the pose of that person. Ask
- What are you thinking or saying?
- Describe what you are feeling?
Then help your children make up a story about their character. Alternatively ask some other leading questions such as
- If the artist were to paint this picture today what would we see?
- Can you think of anything that would be different?
- What would the people be doing?
5. Add Some Movement
Role-play is an easy way to step into a painting and add some movement. Invite your children to mimic the movement of the people they see in the painting. We see a wonderful example of that in Kirsty’s picture above.
Other paintings have a flow and movement painted into them. Take Starry Night by Van Gogh
Invite the children to hold an imaginary paintbrush and use it to paint the movement they see in the sky or draw the hills. Ask them to identify shapes in the picture, like the circular stars, or the triangle in the pointed steeple of the church. Then trace those shapes with your hands. If you want to go larger, use streamers to make extra large movements.
Or you could take a picture like Chrysanthemums: a Japanese print of a bee hovering over some flowers (pictured below), play Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Flight of the Bumblebee and have the children buzz around the room like a bumblebee. What fun!
Related: Read this post for more ideas about pairing classical music and art
6. Play Some Games
Alison over at No Time For Flash Cards has created five simple games you can play with your kids at the art museum to keep them engaged with the art. My favorite was I’ll Take That One where each person gets to choose one piece of art that they pretend they can take home. They must also say where they would put the piece in their own home. Now let me see… I think I would take Van Gough’s “Starry Night” or maybe something by Picasso! What about you?
7. Famous Artwork For Kids: Make your Own Art
One of the best things about great works of art is that they can inspire our own creativity. You’ll also need some basic art supplies. A simple set of watercolor paints, some crayons and pencils are things most families have on hand. You might like to try something different like a set of chalk pastels. Here are 21 art projects to get your creative juices flowing.
- Try this idea inspired by Van Gogh’s picture Starry Night the results are just gorgeous.
- Here is a Starry Night holiday project inspired by the same painting.
- How about using yarn to create your own starry night?
- Here the painting is recreated using skittles. It is a fun way to combine science and art.
- Use playdough to recreate Van Gough’s sunflowers. It is stunning!
- Create some art using dots of color (Pointillism) is the technique used by the artist Georges Seurat in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Here is another project based on the same painting.
- I enjoy abstract painting, so I really liked this free flowing activity inspired by Jackson Pollock on Meri Cherry. The perfect activity for a warm summer day. Here are some more splatter paintings inspired by Jackson Pollock. If you are interested there is some archival footage of Jackson Pollock narrating the creative process. Warning- the artist is smoking during this video.
- I’m in love with these gorgeous chalk pastel poppies inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe
- Recreate Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ painting using your kids face. I bet they would love this
- Try these fun handprint pop art pieces based on Andy Warhol’s work.
- Head over to Art lessons for kids to find Picasso Inspired Faces. Aren’t they fun? You can also make them out of playdough. You can also explore cubism with this fun project.
- Children seem to enjoy Piet Mondrian’s artwork with black lines and primary colors. How about a suncatcher in the same style?
- Patty at Deep Space Sparkle used The Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt as inspiration for an art project. I’m ready to try one of these myself!
- Karel Appel was a Dutch painter who often used junk in his artwork. Here’s a fun junk artwork project based on his work. Mike Kelley is another artist who created massive collage from all sorts of junk. Here is a project based on his work. It uses all kinds of bits and pieces.
- Kadinsky’s Circles can inspire all kinds of art pieces. Try these rainbow flowers or heart. I also love this collage.
- Andrew Goldworthy is a contemporary artist who creates stunning land art. Learn how to make your own pieces of art in nature.
- Finally, just for fun, enjoy this Monet Art Project for kids.
Whatever you do remember that this is supposed to be fun! The great thing about art is that there is no right or wrong and you can interpret a piece of art anyway you want. That makes it really easy doesn’t it?
The Benefits Of Enjoying Art With Kids
It is never too early to start enjoying art with your children. Before I wrap up this post, the educator in me feels compelled to list the many educational benefits for primary age children.
- Enjoying art provides many informal learning opportunities.
- Inspires creativity.
- Stimulates the imagination.
- Encourages observation skills.
- Gives insights into the worlds of other cultures and times.
- Provides opportunities for children to articulate opinions and form judgements.
- Develops visual perception (the process of taking images and giving them meaning).
- Helps develop spatial concepts.
In fact, a recent study concluded that
“Students who, by lottery, were selected to visit the museum on a field trip demonstrated stronger critical thinking skills, displayed higher levels of social tolerance, exhibited greater historical empathy and developed a taste for art museums and cultural institutions.”
Whoa! All those benefits from enjoying art? It sounds pretty impressive doesn’t it? But what I love the most is the bonding that occurs when parents and children enjoy art together. Something magical happens as memories are built and connections occur. How’s that for a win win situation?
Your Turn
I’d love to hear from you. Do you enjoy art with your children? Do you have any tips for bonding through art? Have you any art museum stories to offer? Please leave a comment below.
These are great tips! I love it because it encourages creativity, imagination, engagement and activity with our children. It’s a much better option than seating on the couch watching a movie or playing video games. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your encouraging Kelvin. I’m a huge fan of encouraging imagination! we need a lot more of it in our world.
I must admit I’ve never really thought about showing my children proper art yet, but these are great tips, I’d like to try asking them a few questions.
Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids
Thanks for visiting Karen. I’m always amazed at the things children see in art. It’s fun to explore it with them.
LOVE this post!! I want to share my love of art with my kids and this is really inspiring and helpful. Thank you!
xx thanks Kendra 🙂
This is a wonderful post and the photo of your daughter is wonderful! I have pinned this to my “parenting” board on Pinterest so other parents will try it.
Thanks for the pin Bonnie. This isn’t my picture ….. but I agree it is fabulous 🙂
I would love to do this when my son is a little older. At the moment, art for us is painting/crafting at home, but even that’s a challenge because he more prefers cars and trucks and just doesn’t have the attention span to sit and be creative. But he’s only 2, so I”m sure one day things will change.
Your little guy is at an active wriggly stage and I can quite understand why he prefers his cars and trucks. You’ll notice a huge difference in him in the next few years. He may still prefer his vehicles, but you will be able to sneak in a lot more art!
I love this! The kids and I have gone to a few art museums (usually on free days!) and their perspective on the things they see always amazes me and makes me think.
Yay for free days! I’m always impressed with children’s perspective on art pieces. They see things I don’t even notice!
What a wonderful photograph that is – and such a great post from you as well. We took our kids to the Tate Modern in Liverpool (UK) recently, and I was amazed at how well they connected with the art there. The museum has a wonderful interactive room too, which was perfect for them 😀 Thanks for taking part in the Parenting Pin it Party this week.
Oh so jealous! I will be visiting family in the UK this May and we are hoping to go up to the Tate Modern in London. I love the interactive rooms in art museums. they make art so much fun! thanks for visiting 🙂
Great advice! Love those art works you picked.
Aren’t they gorgeous? It was fun picking them out 🙂
What a fantastic post! I’m pinning this for later!
Thank you Jennifer!
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Pinned! Great post. Featuring at Family Fun Friday. http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/2014/03/family-fun-friday-week-60-successful-parenting-tips.html
Monica
Thank you Monica 🙂
As a homeschooling momma, I LOVE this! Sadly, our local art museum is closed for remodeling at present. We’re taking a trip to Cincinnati in a few weeks, and I plan to visit their museum while we’re there. I love the tips you’ve shared!
Thanks for linking up to A Thoughtful Spot!
I hope the remodeling doesn’t take too long. Have fun in Cincinnati! Thanks for visiting!
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The advice to take your kids to an art museum at least month was a really great idea. I was wondering if you had advice on how to find art museums that are kid friendly or offer programs for kids? The list of questions to ask kids was useful and also a good list for anyone to think of when looking at art.
Thanks for commenting Vivian. I find a good place to start is to simply Google “Kid friendly art museums in (name of State/Province)” or “Art Museums that offer programs for kids in (name of State/Province).”
You’re right about art inspiring creativity. It also stimulates the imagination, just as you’ve shared.