Art

Why art? Because it’s mind-expanding, creativity-promoting, empowering, fun to do, and fun to look at. Check out these resources on famous artists, famous works of art, art history and appreciation, art in fiction, and a lot of great hands-on projects.

FAMOUS ARTISTS

	Eric Carle’s The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel Books, 2011) is a gorgeous celebration of art, complete with blue horse, red crocodile, black polar bear, yellow cow, and polka-dotted donkey. A delightful book for young artists – and a tribute to one of Carle’s inspirations, artist Franz Marc, who painted The Blue Horse in 1911. For ages 2-5.
	See Franz Marc’s Blue Horse here.
	By Jeanette Winters, Mr. Cornell’s Dream Boxes (Beach Lane Books, 2014) is the picture-book story of artist Joseph Cornell, who made wonderful “memory boxes” from found objects. For ages 4-7.
	Joan Sommers’s The Cornell Box (Cider Mill Press, 2016) has background info on artist Joseph Cornell, who created artworks in small glass-fronted boxes incorporating found objects, trinkets, book pages, and more. The book – housed in a keepsake box – includes six project ideas and a handful of materials to get hopeful artists started. For ages 10 and up.
	Make your own! See these Joseph Cornell Box Ideas from Pinterest.
	Kathleen Benson’s Draw What You See (Clarion Books, 2015) is the inspirational story of African-American artist Benny Andrews, one of ten children, born to sharecroppers in rural Georgia in the 1930. He painted wonderful folk-art-like scenes of ordinary people in the South and fought against the exclusion of black artists from the greater art world. For ages 4-7.
	Michelle Markel’s Dreamer from the Village (Henry Holt and Company, 2005) is a picture-book biography of Russian-French artist Marc Chagall – who “was different from other boys. He saw things they didn’t see.” For ages 4-8.
	Daydreaming with Chagall is a hands-on art project based on Chagall’s painting “I and the Village.”
	See Chagall: Art Projects for Kids on Pinterest.
	Michelle Markel’s The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2012) begins “Henri Rousseau wants to be an artist. Not a single person has ever told him he is talented. He’s a toll collector. He’s forty years old. But he buys some canvas, paint, and brushes, and starts painting anyway.” A charming picture-book biography for ages 4-8.
	From the Incredible @rt Department, Henri Rousseau – Art and Science is an illustrated lesson plan with many suggestions for hands-on art projects.
	Try creating Your Own Rousseau Jungle using construction paper and magazine collage materials.
	From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vincent’s Colors (Chronicle Books, 2005) pairs reproductions of Van Gogh paintings with his comments upon them, in the form of gentle rhymes: “Leaves of silver, turning to green/stars sparkling, greenish, yellow, white/a big bunch of violet irises/and in my head a starry night.” For ages 4-8.
	Make Van Gogh’s Starry Night with paper cut-outs and pencil-eraser and apple prints.
	See a collection of Van Gogh-inspired art projects for kids here, among them 3D models of Van Gogh paintings, a sunflower collage, and hanging Starry Night ornaments.
	In Nina Laden’s When Pigasso Met Mootisse (Chronicle Books, 1998), the two painters (shown as a pig in a beret and a shaggy orange bull) are neighbors who fall out when each criticizes the other’s artworks. They build a fence between their houses – but then find that they miss each other’s company. They end up painting their respective sides of the fence, eventually producing a wonderful collaborative work of modern art. Loosely based on the real-life relationship between Picasso and Matisse. For ages 4-8.
	Art Projects for Kids: Picasso has a list of Picasso-themed hands-on projects, among them cubist faces and self-portraits and cubist paper-bag masks.
	See Picasso: Art Projects for Kids on Pinterest.
	Jonah Winter’s Diego (Dragonfly Books, 1994), written in both English and Spanish, is the story of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, illustrated with richly colored folk-art-themed paintings. For ages 4-8.
	Check out this collaborative project for making your own Diego Rivera mural.
	Diego Rivera Lesson Plans, Books, and More has several hands-on art projects, coloring pages, and a book list.
	Also by Winter, Frida (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2002) is the story of brilliant artist Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera’s wife, who turned her often painful life into magical surreal paintings. For ages 4-10.
	Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown (NorthSouth Books, 2017) is a charmer of a picture book about Kahlo’s life, art (and pets) for ages 5-9.
	Frida Kahlo Lesson Plans has background info, hands-on projects, arts and crafts, and a book list.
	Make this Frida Kahlo portrait with black construction paper and oil pastels.
	The Uncle Andy of James Warhola’s Uncle Andy’s (Puffin, 2005) is artist Andy Warhol. The book, written by Warhol’s nephew, describes his family’s visits to Uncle Andy’s amazing NYC apartment, crammed with all kinds of things that the author’s mother claims is junk, but Uncle Andy insists is art. For ages 4-9.
	James Warhola’s Uncle Andy’s Cats (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2009) tells the story of artist Andy Warhol’s 25 cats – beginning with the first little blue cat named Hester. For ages 4-8.
	See these great Andy Warhol-themed art projects on Pinterest.
	From KinderArt, make Warhol Pop Art Portraits.
	Jeanette Winters’s Henri’s Scissors (Beach Lane Books, 2013) describes how Henri Matisse, when he became ill late in life and was too weak to paint, began making glorious cut-paper pictures. The simple story is embellished with quotes from Matisse; illustrations include Matisse’s paper-collage shapes. For ages 5-8.
	In Samantha Friedman’s Matisse’s Garden (Harry N. Abrams, 2014), Matisse makes a bird out of cut paper – and then goes on to create a wonderful paper garden on the walls of his apartment. The book itself is illustrated with cut-paper collages. For ages 5-8. See more here.
	See this You Tube film clip of Henri Matisse making paper cut-outs.
	Make Matisse-style paper collages.
	In Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Lee Stone (Viking Juvenile Books, 2008), artist Alexander Calder is hired to draw pictures of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus – and goes on to create the marvelous wire-sculpture circus figures that made him famous. For ages 5-9.
	See how to make your own Calder Wire Sculpture.
	Check out these great Calder-style kinetic sculptures made by first-graders.
	Geraldine Elschner’s The Cat and the Bird (Prestel Publishing, 2012) is based on a painting by artist Paul Klee. It’s a simple story of a pampered cat who longs for freedom; finally, with the help of a sympathetic bird, he escapes from the house to dance on the roof in the moonlight. The book ends with a beautiful color reproduction of Klee’s “Cat and Bird.” For ages 5 and up.
	From Deep Space Sparkle, Klee Cat & Bird is a great lesson plan based on the book, in which kids learn to paint wonderful Klee-style cats.
	Paul Klee Inspired Villages is an art project in which kids make gorgeous painted-paper villages.
	In D.B. Johnson’s Magritte’s Marvelous Hat (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), surrealist painter Rene Magritte – represented by a very elegant dog – acquires a mysterious hat that floats just above his head. Eventually it inspires him to paint a wonderful picture. For ages 4-8.
	From Museum Masters, Rene Magritte has images of Magritte’s work, fun facts, and Magritte-based hands-on art projects.
	Margarita Engle’s Summer Birds (Henry Holt and Company, 2010) is the enchanting story of a little-known artist, Maria Merian, born in Germany in 1647. At the time, most people believed that insects came from mud, in a process called spontaneous generation – but Maria, who was a keen observer of nature, disagreed. She eventually became famous both as a scientist and as an artist for her wonderful paintings of insects and of butterflies, then sometimes called “summer birds.” For ages 5-9.
	For many more resources, see Marvelous Moths, Beautiful Butterflies.
	Kathy Whitehead’s Art from Her Heart (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2008) is the picture-book biography of self-taught African-American artist Clementine Hunter, who used to hang her wonderful folk-art paintings on the family clothesline. Eventually her talent was recognized and her paintings ended up hanging in museums – but even so, during the days of segregation, Clementine wasn’t allowed to see them, but had to be smuggled into the museum after-hours. For ages 5-9.
	Barb Rosenstock’s The Noisy Paint Box (Knopf, 2014) is a picture-book biography of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the first abstract artists – who was a very proper little Russian boy until he was given his first paintbox. When he mixed colors, he found that he could hear them as marvelous musical sounds – and so he set out to paint music. Kandinsky had a condition called synesthesia, in which people have two or more intertwined senses. Synesthetics can see, hear, or smell colors; some associate colors with words, letters, or numbers; some perceive tastes as shapes. For ages 5-9.
	Kandinsky & Color is a paper circle project for preschoolers and early-elementary kids.
	In Kandinsky Color Circles, kids create circular color studies while listening to music.
	Check out these Kandinsky art projects and lesson plans on Pinterest.
	Jen Bryant’s award-winning A Splash of Red (Knopf, 2013), with wonderful illustrations by Melissa Stewart, is the picture-book biography of self-taught African-American artist Horace Pippin. For ages 6-9.
	From the National Gallery of Art, see Pippin’s Story, which has background info, a slide show of Pippin’s paintings, interactive activities, and a project in which kids paint a picture of a room in their house in the style of Pippin. (Learn all about Pippin’s “secret number.”)
	Rachel Rodriguez’s Through Georgia’s Eyes (Henry Holt and Company, 2006) is a gorgeously illustrated biography of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, from her childhood in Wisconsin through art school, her life in the city, and finally her move to the desert of New Mexico. The theme of the book is allowing readers to see the world as the artist saw it, “through Georgia’s eyes.” For ages 6-9.
	In Jeanette Winters’s My Name is Georgia (HMH, 2003), Georgia O’Keeffe knew that she wanted to be an artist from the time she was a free-spirited little girl, who refused to wear shoes, sashes, and braids like her sisters did. For ages 6-10.
	From Deep Space Sparkle, make Georgia O’Keeffe-inspired flowers.
	See these Georgia O’Keeffe art projects on Pinterest. (Poppies, skulls, and ladders to the moon.)
	By Tina and Carson Kugler, In Mary’s Garden (HMH, 2015) is the picture-book story of contemporary artist Mary Nohl, who loved art from the time she was a little girl. Eventually Mary filled her Wisconsin garden with fantastical creatures crafted from concrete and found objects, turning it into a marvelous art gallery. For ages 6-9.
	Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (Square Fish, 2007) is a picture-book account of Wyoming-born artist Jackson Pollock, beginning as Pollock pulls on his paint-splattered boots and heads out to the barn to create one of his best-known paintings, Lavender Mist. (An appendix has a more detailed biography in smaller print.) For ages 6-10.
	Try this great Jackson Pollock project. Outdoors. In old clothes.
	Berenice Capatti’s Klimt and His Cat (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2004) is a fictionalized story of 19th-century Viennese artist Gustav Klimt as told from the point of view of his cat, Katze. Illustrations include glittering views of Klimt’s works. For ages 6-10.
	A glorious Klimt painting is featured in the 2015 film Woman in Gold, based on the true story of an elderly Jewish woman’s attempt to recover the portrait of her aunt, stolen from her family by the Nazis. Rated PG-13.
	Make your own version of Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life.
	Klimt-themed art projects include making jeweled art trading cards and patterned line art.
	Nancy Willard’s Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch (HMH, 1991) is a fantastical tale of 15th-century painter Hieronymus Bosch, as told from the point of view of his frustrated housekeeper: “I’m quitting your service, I’ve had quite enough/Of your three-legged thistles asleep in my wash/Of scrubbing the millstone you use for a dish/And riding to shops on a pickle-winged fish.” (“Pish, posh,” said Hieronymus Bosch.) Illustrations are in the form of lush period paintings in gold frames, featuring a wild array of strange Boschian creatures. For ages 7 and up.
	Oh My Gosh, It’s a Bosch! is a Bosch-based art project in which kids make their own strange surreal portraits.
	In Christina Bjork’s Linnea in Monet’s Garden (Sourcebooks, 2012), the exuberant Linnea has come to visit Paris – and to see the house and garden of impressionist painter Claude Monet. Written in the first person in Linnea’s voice. A charming mix of art, history, and story. For ages 7-11.
	10 Claude Monet Art Projects for Kids include a 3D waterlily pond and a seascape painting.
	Jacqueline Davies’s The Boy Who Drew Birds (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004) is a beautifully illustrated picture-book biography of John James Audubon for ages 6-9.
	Robert Burleigh’s Hi, I’m Norman (Simon & Schuster, 2019) is a picture-book biography of American artist Norman Rockwell, with illustrations by Wendell Minor. For ages 5-9.
	Also by Burleigh and Minor, see Edward Hopper Paints His World (Henry Holt, 2014). For ages 5-9.