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 daughter (she is almost 4) some of his art. I asked her what she saw, we pointed out some of the different materials we noticed on his canvases. I told her these are like sculpture paintings, the artist called them combines. And that was it, we started working on our projects. She had noticed a bird 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 and led her art making on her own.
Materials:
- Canvas
- Recycled materials (cardboard, egg cartons, paper straws, etc.)
- Glue (we used hot 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, but you could stretch this out over a few days.)
Then we painted it, I encouraged her to cover as much of the canvas and objects as she could.
This turned out to be a favorite project! The pieces are already proudly hanging on the wall in our art room.
