I love an art project that introduces us to a new artist! For this project we looked at the art of Robert Rauschenberg. He was an American artist who is known for using everyday objects on his canvases, creating works that are a combination of painting and sculpture, or combines.
I set out all our materials and then I showed my daughters some of his art. I asked them what they saw and we pointed out some of the different materials we noticed on his canvases. I told them these are like sculpture paintings, the artist called them combines. And that was it, we started working on our projects. One child had noticed a bird on one of the artworks and said she felt inspired she make a nest on her canvas. With a few minutes of looking and talking she made her own connection, felt inspired, and created her own artwork.
Materials:
- Canvas (or cardboard)
- Recycled materials (cardboard scraps, egg cartons, paper straws, etc.)
- Glue
- Scissors
- Paint
- Paintbrush
They placed materials on the canvas and I glued them down with hot glue (I wanted it to be fast drying so we could paint immediately, but you could stretch this out over a few days.)
Then we painted it, I encouraged them to cover as much of the canvas and objects as possible.
This turned out to be a favorite project! The pieces are already proudly hanging on the wall in our art room.
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