Messy Art-Jackson Pollock

There are a considerable number of messy projects on my to-do-with-the-kids-before-they-graduate bucket list. Many of the fun ones are accompanied by fair amounts of clean-up afterward. This week we tackled one of those projects. 


After reading the Mike Venezia biography about Jackson Pollock I showed them a 2 minute video clip of him working on one of his big splatter paintings. I was sure to point out Pollock's messy work boots so the kids knew what kind of fun awaited us. 


Then I found the biggest pieces of paper I could and we went outside to "work". (Really we went outside to get messy and laugh.) The paper was about 3 feet x 4 feet.

ds8's project

dd5's project

It was great fun for all three of us to make our own large-sized art.


The one thing I didn't plan for was how to get these projects into the house for drying and safe-keeping! If we had done this project in the morning, the paint would have had 10 hours to dry before we picked it up. We did it around 4:00, though, and had a tough time maneuvering through doors and down stairs without smearing the paint.

Art Lesson-Piet Mondrian

Last week's artist was Piet Mondrian.

Reasons I like teaching about Mondrian:

*His life is a history lesson. His life was affected by both World Wars.
*His life is a geography lesson as we trace his route across Europe and to the United States.
*His artwork is so fun and in many ways simple, using basic lines and primary colors.
*His artwork is easy to imitate. Doing our own artwork in his style can be as similar or different as we'd like it to be. The kids sometimes like the satisfaction that comes when their artwork looks close to that of the original.

                                                                            by ds7

                                                                              by dd5