Picasso Artist Study

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Pablo Picasso for Children

Study the artwork of a modern artist whose very name has come to mean a masterpiece of art-- "a Picasso."

If your children have been studying more traditional artists, the works of Picasso may be a most welcome change of style.

Dabble into the artistic schools of Cubism and Collage as you reproduce your own Picasso-styled art. It's fun!

I'm going to walk you through a Picasso artist study: share what we did and also share some additional ideas and resources. Pick and choose what works for you.

Smart About Art

We started our Picasso study with this book. (I found it for $.35 at a thrift store!) It's a wonderful introduction to the artist's life and art -- not too much overwhelming detail, but just enough to whet the appetite for the art work that we would study in depth over the next ten weeks. Since Picasso's style changes drastically over the years, this book was a good foundation to hang our study. We understood the Blue Period, the Rose Period, and his development of Cubism.

I highly recommend this book.

Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules (Smart About Art)

by: True Kelley

Amazon Price: $5.99 (as of 11/20/2009)

This book is a delight to read. It's written as if it were a child's school report. Jam packed with facts and artwork, this book teaches in a truly engaging way.

Choosing Picasso Art to Study

I prefer having a book from which to study art, but if you choose to use online sources, Olga's Gallery is a wonderful place to start. Picasso was a very prolific artist, and because he was famous in his lifetime in this modern era, a great quantity of his work has been documented.

Here are my suggestions to make it a bit easier for you. I've chosen twelve paintings so that you can study one per week for a term, as Charlotte Mason suggested artist study be done. (If you study a few less or more, that's fine. The object is to focus on one artist for an extended period of time.)

Leaning Harlequin

Le Gourmet

The Old Guitarist

In 'Lapin Agile' or Harlequin with a Glass

Self-Portrait with a Palette

Self-Portrait

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (This painting does include nudity.)

Factory in Horta de Ebbo

Harlequin

Three Musicians

Violin and Guitar

Dora Maar

If you need help with the regular art study lessons, visit Artist Study Charlotte Mason Style for the basic how-tos. Basically, the child studies the piece of art for a few minutes and then orally narrates it back, telling what he saw.

For a well done biography of Picasso (and Matisse), download this PDF resource guide.

And be sure to visit the Museum of Modern Art where you can listen to an audio clip about Picasso's sculpture Guitar. It's made especially for children, so it's safe!

Our Picasso Spine

Picasso, Pablo: A Modern Master (Great Masters)

by: Richard Leslie

Amazon Price: $14.00 (as of 11/20/2009)

I found this in a used book store for $6. I thought it was well worth the price for an oversized hardback book full of color prints! Find a spine that has the largest and most full color prints of Picasso's art.

Oooh! Picasso

Google Books has a full preview of the wonderful picture book, Oooh! Picasso. It's a great introduction to Picasso's sculpture.

Picasso and Kids

Picasso loved to paint the female form! And when studying art with children, that can cause some problems. How do you handle the nudity in Picasso's art?

If you'd like to read more about this touchy topic, the Art Institute of Chicago has published a very well done PDF titled Body Language: How to Talk to Students about Nudity in Art. It includes some example works of art and various ages at which they may be suitable.

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"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

-- by Picasso

Picasso Printables

Coloring Pages and Notebooking Pages

Quixote Coloring Page: A coloring page of Quixote.
Girl in front of Mirror Coloring Page: A coloring Page of Girl in Front of Mirror.
Picasso Teachers' Guide: Lesson plans plus and art available in PDF.
Guitar Man Coloring Page: Look at the bottom of the image for helps on how to print.
Bull's Head Sculpture: This coloring page is painfully simple, but I add it here just in case some one may want to use it.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: A coloring page very close to the original painting.
Picasso Notebooking Page: This page is a freebie from Homeschool Helper. It features a black and white photograph of Picasso and room for writing.
Picasso Notebooking Pages -- Set of 3: These notebooking pages use the same black and white photo of Picasso but have the nicer primary lines for handwriting (in three styles).
Picasso Minibook: This template includes four petal books in a folder and a selection of small thumbnails of Picasso's art. Choose any four for your minibook.
Picasso Notebooking Pages -- Set: Here is a set of pages I created. It's two basic pages but with some slight variations to create a set of 5 different pages.
Artist Flashcards: These are sort of like a baseball card for an artist. Print it out and fill in the facts about Picasso.

Picasso at Flickr

Picasso - The Guitar Player by teadrinker

Picasso Gertrude Stein (detail) by *clairity*

curated content from Flickr

Make Your Own Picasso

The work of Gordon Magnin is very cubist. Check out how he modifies magazine pages into cubist art. Note -- view this with your children away from the computer. Not all images are suitable for children (some are a bit gruesome, many have cleavage). But some of the images will serve as inspiration for your own easy to do cubism.

Here is Sprite's cubist version of a magazine ad:

And here is mine:

For more inspiration, visit Art Projects for Kids. Kathy Barbro is an elementary art teacher with amazing ideas! Here she offers two Picasso inspired art projects with easy directions and an example piece.

For each artist we study, I allow my daughter to choose any piece of art to duplicate as best she can. Here is her choice for Picasso.

Another hands-on idea for a study of Picasso is to create African masks like the ones Picasso was inspired by. Then do some sketches and paintings of the masks you create!

Picasso ATCs

another activity idea

ATC = Artist Trading Card, a small (2.5" x 3.5") work of art.

We printed out the Picasso thumbnails from the minibook template I made and used the tiny images for making Picasso inspired ATCs. Here is our work; some are mine and some are Sprite's.

Making collage ATCs is another way to interact with PIcasso's art. As we worked, I heard Sprite say things like, "Oh, I remember we studied this one. I really like the colors."

Picasso also was one of the first artists to use the collage art form, so making collages with his art is appropriate.

picasso inspired ATC2 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

picasso inspired ATC1 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by mom

picasso inspired ATC3 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by mom

Picasso inspired ATCs4 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

Picasso inspired ATCs3 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

Picasso inspired ATCs2 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

Picasso inspired ATCs8 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by mom

Picasso inspired ATCs6 by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by mom

picasso ATC with buttons by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

picasso ATC with swinging tag by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

picasso ATC with big button by jimmiehomeschoolmom

by Sprite

curated content from Flickr

Other Picasso Projects

Get Hands-on As You Create Like Picasso

Enjoy these creative ideas for making your own Picasso inspired projects.

School For Us: Reproductions and a visit to the museum round out this Picasso artist study!
The Shady Side of Picasso: An art lesson focusing on cubism and shading inspired by Picasso's work (nothing raunchy here; just a clever title).
Picasso Copycat: LaPaz Home Learning approaches some art reproductions in an unschooling style. JBug makes her own version of Pablo Picasso's "Child with a Dove."
Lights on the Lake Picasso Study: Michelle's homeschool group studied Picasso and made some clown collages. Very cute!
Grant Thomas's Picasso Powerpoint: This short (free downloadable) PPT presentation deals with how African masks inspired Picasso's art.
Oil Pastel Picasso Faces Art Lesson: From Deep Space Sparkle, the blog of an art teacher.
Art Attack -- Picasso Faces: Using recycled cardboard packaging, make a 3D cubist face sculpture.

Picasso Books at Amazon

Picasso (Getting to Know...

Picasso and the Girl with...

Picasso and Minou

Draw with Pablo Picasso

Painting with Picasso (Mi...

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