Art Inspiration - Jackson Pollock

I have never been keen to do lots of messy art with the kids. When I do art (at anytime) I like it to be neat, organised and controlled. I follow a facebook group called Toddler Approved. The lady who writes it is a mum of 4 kids and used to be a teacher. She is so creative and provides lots of fun activities for her kids to learn. I love reading them but often think that I wouldn't be able to do them. She posted about learning about artists and providing a chance for the kids to make an artwork inspired by them. I normally would just look at it and think 'cool' and then move on but for some reason (and I honestly have no recollection about why I felt this way) I decided to attempt some of the artworks. Each of the lessons started by watching a youtube video about the artist and their technique and then gave guidelines to complete an artwork inspired by the artist.

All credit to her for the ideas! You can find the blog post here:
https://www.toddlerapproved.com/2020/04/famous-artists-activities-for-kids.html?fbclid=IwAR10A5-tOt3bnDWWKeIK_aJbQfChKxzb3F_AdsxWaNgB1epYlpQvseJQ4OY

The first one that she posted was art inspired by Jackson Pollock. Maybe it was that the art was so eye catching, or maybe because I do like the artwork Blue Poles that he did. As I said before I'm not too sure. Especially with his style of painting being quite messy it was really out of the ordinary for me to do. But I am really proud of myself for doing it anyway, especially when I saw the joy that the kids had and also the results of their artworks!

We watched this youtube clib by Artrageous with Nate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKL7ThG67ac&feature=youtu.be

Daniel loved actually learning about Jackson Pollock and seeing where he lived as well as some of his artworks.
Then it was the kids' turn to make their own artworks. We watered down the coloured paints that I had and took the paint containers and paper to the front lawn. The kids got changed into dirty clothes (and I'm so glad that they did!). The wind slightly picked up so we got some cardboard to tape the paper to.

To do that artwork the kids needed to flick the paint onto their paper. They had an absolute blast doing it! They shared the paint well and created multiple artworks. Enjoy seeing their pure joy of painting! They started off small and close to the paper.

But as they got more comfortable they started to flick more and more.

The kids' artworks looked so cool that James and I decided that we'd give them each a canvas that they could paint and we'd put them up in the house. I'm so glad that we did that.

Daniel's artwork 'Colourful Waterfall'

Alexander's artwork 'Spotty'

Eliza's artwork 'Drippy'

Alexander finished up his painting after the canvas. I loved how his painting didn't go over the top. You were able to see his little splats. He managed to get a bit of paint on himself too.

Our neighbour Mary saw the kids painting and came over to have a look at their artworks. She tried to guess which kid painted which painting and she gave compliments to each of them. It was really sweet to have her come over to see. It was also nice because with Covid-19 happening she had been told by her doctor to not leave home besides a short walk and to stay away from others. We kept our distance but it was lovely to have a chat with her about the artworks.

Daniel was keen to do another artwork. This time he used quite warm colours - blues and greens. And then he had finished painting.

Eliza just loved this. She just wanted to stay outside and keep painting. She loved the mess of it, the drippy paint and the freedom.

In the end, I think she had more paint on herself than the actual artworks had. It was beautiful to see!

To enjoy the beautiful day we had lunch on the front yard.

And then had a bubble bath (the kids definitely needed it to get all the paint off!)

A brilliant start to the art inspiration activities!