Blogging breaks are inevitable, but eggs always have a way of bringing me back. This year, they are inspired by the wonderful imagery found in Keith Haring’s work, which he cleverly used to draw attention to important issues of the day. The Haring Kids website is filled with lesson plans and ideas if you’re looking for ways to introduce his work to children, and to get them inspired for this project.
Filed under eggs, Keith Haring
Picasso’s asymmetrical faces are nothing short of fabulous. They’re used here to decorate pots which kids can then use to explore the wonderful world of plants.
Filed under Art and Nature, Artists, Pablo Picasso
Seems I lost my mojo for a while, but I’m back with some painted eggs, and looking forward to sharing all sorts of projects with you. Artist Gustav Klimt provided inspiration for this year’s batch of eggs, as did Aesop’s fable, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg. Klimt was an Austrian painter (1862-1918), who was probably best know for his golden phase, which included incredible paintings like The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Aesop’s fable provides a classic lesson about greed, with plenty of versions online to share with your little ones. Grab your gold and happy painting!
Filed under eggs, Gustav Klimt, painting
It was on this day in 1852, that Spanish Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, was born. His unique and imaginative style can be seen in the magnificent church, the Sagrada Família, and Parc Güell, where mosaics cover benches and ceilings throughout the property. It was amazing to see his work on a visit to Barcelona several years ago, and interesting to see how his designs were inspired by the things he was most passionate about, like nature. Children can easily incorporate meaningful objects they’ve gathered, along with mosaic tiles, to truly personalize this project. So gather up your bits and bobs, so we can celebrate the wonderful world of Gaudi.
Filed under Antoni Gaudi, Artists, mosaics
Hungarian born artist, Simon Hantaï, was an important figure in European art until his death in 2008. He spent most of his life in France, and was best known for his abstract work. His desire to move away from conventional methods of painting, lead to a process called pliage. Hantaï invented this technique, which involved folding and crumpling unstretched canvas, before adding bold and vibrant colours to it. This enabled him to continue exploring patterns and repetitiveness, present in his earlier work, while focussing on the importance of white space and the idea of chance.
This project is inspired by Hantaï’s pliage work, and very simply explores the idea of painting and creating art in a non conventional way, by scrunching canvasses and having fun.
Filed under Artists, painting, Simon Hantaï
Brazilian artist and designer, Andre Levy, will change the way you look at coins. His creative interventions in Tales You Lose, involve embellishing and transforming heads of state into popular characters and people, leaving you wondering why you never thought of doing that yourself! It may also leave you curious about who is chosen to be on a coin, and about the legalities of altering money, even for non-fraudulent purposes like art. In this case, the acrylic paint you’ll be using can easily be scraped away, allowing you to continue using your coins as legitimate currency. But if you prefer to save the Queen of England sporting a new, hot pink coiffe, you can do that too.
Filed under Andre Levy, coins, painting
Egg painting season is upon us, and this year, my daughter decided Andy Warhol was the way to go. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928, and like Roy Lichtenstein, who inspired these eggs, became an important figure in the Pop Art movement. His use of everyday objects, and popular images from celebrity culture and the world of advertising, took art in a new direction, making it less elitist and more of a celebration of “consumerism and mass culture.” Warhol left us with unforgettable images of Campbell’s Soup cans, Brillo boxes, and plenty of famous faces to use as inspiration for this year’s batch of eggs.
Filed under Andy warhol, eggs, painting, Pop Art
Have you ever wondered who first thought of skewering small bits of beautifully decorated cake? Turns out the cake pop queen is Bakerella, and the idea first came to her back in 2008. It’s been a few years since I’ve been admiring (and eating) them, and finally got around to making an arts and crafts project inspired by them. Fake pops are easy to make, and adapt well to any theme. The only down side is that they’re not edible.
Filed under Pablo Picasso, styrofoam crafts
You may have heard of a film called The Clock by artist Christian Marclay. It’s been showing in galleries and museums around the world for the past two years, and is now in Toronto. It’s the result of an ambitious two year project involving collaging and remixing thousands of images of film and TV footage, to represent every minute of a twenty- four hour period. The film is edited to be shown in real time, which means it’s 24 hours long. Crazy! I recently saw it, loved it, and found myself wanting to stay much longer than I could but…no time. In fact it was really interesting to be so engaged in something, yet constantly aware of the time, and in my case, when the parking meter would expire.
There are plenty of clips on YouTube which will give you an idea of what the film looks like. Naturally, a clock project had to come out of this, since at some point we all have to learn how to tell time.
Filed under Artists, Christian Marclay, clock, recycling
Gerhardt Richter recently had a phenomenal show at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. This German artist has explored and mastered many styles including abstract, pop art, minimalism and photo-realism, where he creates paintings derived from photographs and adds his trademark blur. His work sells for prices higher than any other living artist, and is considered by many to be the most important working artist today. I loved his series of lacquer-on-glass paintings, and thought it would be interesting for kids to explore the idea of creating layers on plexiglass.
Filed under Acrylic Mediums, Artists, Gerhard Richter, painting
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