It’s so important for your child to not only experience art, but to use it as a jumping off point for other skills.  Language, social skills, and fine motor skills can all be fostered in creating works of art together. 

Every child is an artist.  Every child is born with the curiosity, imagination, and wonder to create beautiful masterpieces.  From finger painting, to coloring, to sculpting, when children experience making something of their own, it brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.  I know our son LOVES to do “projects”, as he calls them.  He has been making art projects since he was little, starting with finger painting process art, to now, beautiful watercolor paintings.  We took him to a local art show this year and he was in awe! He kept walking around pointing to paintings and pictures that he thought were “cool” or liked their bright colors.  It’s never too early to begin exposing your child to the arts, and works of art.  That’s why we are so passionate about arts education for children and we were so inspired to create our “My First Masterpieces” coloring book, full of beautiful adapted famous works of art specially designed and perfect for little hands to color.  

Our last blog post featured Matisse.  Our featured work of his in our book is The Sheath.  Crayon Kid and I were looking through some Matisse prints earlier in the week, so Matisse was fresh in our memory! This Fourth of July weekend we spent a lot of time outside.  We visited Woodcock Dam in Meadville and went fishing in a pond nearby.  We were excited to see a ton of different trees that we don’t typically see up in Erie.  Taking advantage of this opportunity, we gathered up a ton of different types of leaves and took them home, with project plans brewing away in our minds!  We decided to make leaf prints inspired by Matisse's Sheath painting because of its leaves. 

It was so simple and lots of fun.  After getting our canvas, paint, rollers, and a foam brush, we were ready to go! All you do is pick your leaf, and you can put paint right on the leaf, or dip your roller into some dabs of paint on a paper plate.

Roll the paint all over the leaf and then press the leaf face down on your canvas.  This is where you can use the foam brush to press the leaf down, or simply use your hands!  Lift the leaf up, and voila - A beautiful leaf print.  We continued to make leaf print patterns, like “The Sheath”, though we weren’t as conscious to make specific patterns. We just had fun choosing colors and creating our own designs.

They turned out great! Now we have our own Matisse like painting we can hang in our house and enjoy.  Crayon Kid loved it as well.  I showed him The Sheath coloring page later and we talked about our leaf prints as he colored it.  I love sharing these experiences with him and making these connections.  It’s so important for your child to not only experience art, but to use it as a jumping off point for other skills.  Language, social skills, and fine motor skills can all be fostered in creating works of art together.   

I hope you all take time to get outside, get creative, and experience making art and memories with your children.  Check out of blog for more ideas craft ideas that help your child practice fine motor skills AND engage in some purposeful play!  If your child is ready to express his or her artistic skills other ways, our line of early learning crayons are the perfect addition to your art box of supplies!  They can be found in our shop.  

Till next time,

Nancy

Nancy and Jason Morris are business owners from Erie, PA and the makers of Effortless Art Products, a line of inclusive, adapted art products.  They are owners of Two Sparrows Learning Systems.  Learn more about their story on their site.