Art Appreciation- Exploring Contemporary Artists With Young Children

Learners will be introduced to some great contemporary artists (Yayoi Kusama, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Bansky, Mark Bradford, James Turrell, Kara Walker and Hannah van Bart to name a few), and have opportunity to create their own works of art using inspiration and information gained from these artists.   These classes combine art appreciation and art making for the child that is developmentally appropriate.   In the first portion of our classes, we will delve into these artists lives, and look at some of their works and have a discussion and share our thoughts.  The second part of our class will consist of time allocated for creating their own works of art, inspired by the work and lives of these contemporary artists presented.   Some weeks, the learner might need a bit extra time to prep for the upcoming class with materials and to finish their project.  I invite all to post pictures in the classroom of their finished work or share in another class their completed piece.  This weekly ongoing course offers a lot of painting exploration, as well as the opportunity to explore sculpture and drawing and collage. Each week we will focus on one contemporary artist and use various art materials, such as acrylics, oil pastels and charcoal pencils, pens, canvases, paper and air-dry clay. 

Here below are the following dates and artists presented along with suggested materials to use.  Please make sure you have a well- protected working surface, as art-making can be messy.


 September 21-
Artist:  Emma Kolmann
Materials Suggested:



September 28
Artist:  Mark Bradford
Materials Suggested: wood panel or canvas, selection of papers- old scraps, printed texted from magazine/newspaper etc., found materials- items that you can add to your painting surface found from walking around, or items you can recycle to your art work ( examples can be : samples of fruit mesh bags, candy wrappers, tinfoil etc. etc.), acrylic paints, selection of papers and or palette knifes or trowels, water cups to rinse, glue ( liquid) and/or  homemade pastes( water, flour)

October 5
Artist:  Yoyoi Kusama
Materials Suggested: air-dry clay, slip, liquid glue, cardboard for sculpture to rest/dry on, acrylic paint, water-cup to rinse, selection of paintbrushes, modge-podge for glaze

October 12
Artist:  Jeff Koons
Materials Suggested: tinfoil, balloons, tape, acrylic paint, selection of paint-brushes, water- cups to rinse colors, cardboard piece for sculpture to rest/ stand on
Alternative materials:  canvas, acrylic paints, selection of paintbrushes, water-cup to rinse colors

October 19
Artist:  James Turrell
Materials Suggested: glow in the dark paint, ice-cube trays, glow-sticks, water, dark paper
Alternative:  balloons, glow-in- the dark sticks

October 26
Artist:  Kara Walker
Materials Suggested: black paper, white paper, scissors, pencils, glue stick
Alternative: white paper, inks/black markers

November 2
Artist:  Keith Harring
Materials Suggested: pre-stretched canvas, or canvas board, acrylic paints, selection of paintbrushes, water-cups to rinse

November 9
Artist: Hannah Van Bart
Materials Suggested: Water-colors, paintbrushes, water-cup to rinse markers, pastels ( oil or soft), watercolor paper or canvas board.

November 16
Artist:  Hilary Pecis
Materials Suggested: Pre-stretched canvas, or canvas board, acrylic paints, selection of paintbrushes, water cup to rinse colors

November 23
Artist:  Richard Sera
Materials Suggested:  White or dark colors Papers of varying strength ( cardboards, foam core, strong paper etc. ) canvas board for base, tapes, glue
Alternative: pre-stretched canvas, acrylic paints, selection of paintbrushes, water cups to rinse colors

November 30
Artist: Takashi Murakami
Materials Suggested: Colored Pencils, Markers, White Paper

December 7
Artist:  Bansky
Materials Suggested: Pre-stretched canvas, or canvas board or paper, pencils and/or oil pastels/markers, stencil
* We can make a stencil in class- paper, scissors is needed