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Creating George Rodrigue Inspired Art with Kids

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kid painting on easel

We’ve shared all kinds of cool art projects for kids and this one is going to be a whole lot of fun. I pulled out the proper artist easel even. As for our inspiration, we looked no further than our new puppy (who will be with us in late July). I have been wanting the girls to make paintings of our future dog, and exploring the art of George Rodrigue seemed like the perfect opportunity.george rodrigue blue dogs

In our hunt for an amazing artist to learn about we landed on George Rodrigue. You might be familiar with his series of works titled Blue Dogs. This American artist’s paintings of a blue dog seemed like the perfect jumping-off point for the girls.

 
After looking at some examples of Rodrigue’s artwork we discussed the fact that his work is more abstract and two-dimensional than some other classic artists like Renoir and Manet. We actually found many examples of dogs in famous paintings. The history of dogs in art is fascinating. Rodrigue’s use of colour really appealed to my girls.

How to Create George Rodrigue Inspired Art with Kids

We started by thinking of how a piece of art is constructed. The use of background and foreground in a composition.
explaining painting composition to kids
The girls then worked on their rough sketches…
child sketching artwork
kids artwork sketches

And began working on a canvas with acrylic paints. They used proper paint brushes and were thrilled to work with the easel.

large adult sized art easel
 
george rodrigue inspired painting with kid peeking out behind it
almost done
kid painting of dog
 getting there
kids painting of dog
 the finished piece “Blue Mountain Dog”
child's painting of dog in the park
 “The Park Dog”

The finished products were gloriously colourful and creative. My youngest kid was delighted with how her border terrier turned out “it looks just like a real border terrier, I can’t believe it!” My eldest daughter took a more simplistic approach. Each is unique and each will hang with honour on their bedroom wall.

This was a great opportunity to open up the discussion about art. In fact, as my daughter was working on her sketches she was using an eraser we had picked up during our last trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It says “Art Matters”. She said “see mom, art does matter, just like the eraser says.” I cannot wait to take my girls back to the AGO to see the Pablo Picasso exhibit…it’s on the calendar!
 

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two picasso inspired portraits and two of picasso's portraits with titleCheck out our cool Picasso-inspired portraits

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Comments

  1. maggy, red ted art says

    Oh my. This is wonderful!! I love how you explored an artist that is currently relevant to your family – i.e. your new puppy coming!! Great to look at backgrounds and foregournds. And LOVE the finished results (especially the girls smiles).

    Beautiful.

    Thank you for sharing our Kids Get Arty journey! See you again in July!

    Maggy

    • KitchenCounterChronicles says

      Maggy – This is a great series and I can’t wait for July!

  2. Carolyn Wilhelm says

    Wonderful, and I sent this link and Maggy’s page to an art teacher I know. Thanks so much, Carolyn

  3. Rebekah says

    You have inspired me to look at some animal art with my daughter. She loves animals especially cats and dogs so this would be perfect for her!

  4. Jackie H. says

    Wow! I love that you used a “real” piece of art as a jumping off place for the girls to create their own. And I love that they didn’t just copy his work but really created their own interpretations.

  5. andie jaye says

    how fun! i think it’s so interesting that they sketched out ideas first! my son loves using an easel too! just adds to the experience :)pinning this to my famous artists board.

  6. The Monko says

    this is great. I had never heard of George Rodrigue, thanks so much for sharing him, and your great art activity

  7. PlayDrMom says

    Thanks so much for sharing their process and products! It’s a very inspirational post … I definitely want to try more stuff like this with my kids! Thanks so much for sharing it on this week’s Kids Co-Op Linky!