Mixing art appreciation with art concepts

My kids have two entirely different concepts of art. 

Logan is content to just do art appreciation.  He will look at all the paintings I want him to as long as I don't ask him to draw.  Of course, this is partly because of his autism.  His brain is wired different . It doesn't  help that he is most definitely left brained.  Math is easy for him. Art , not so much.

Yes, that is all art supplies!

Madison would draw the day away.  She is always writing notes and drawing pictures.  She likes art so much that Santa brought her massive amounts of art supplies for Christmas along with a mobile easel.  She was beyond ecstatic.  She gets very disappointed when we do artist study where there is no actual drawing or crafting involved. 

Madison's recreation of Caspar David Friedrich sunset

To keep both of them happy, I have started doing a mixture of art appreciation or artist study along with art concepts.  Pretty basic stuff.  These activities have to be short (less than 15 minutes) but have enough meat to make it fun.  Nothing that would completely frustrate Logan but enough to satisfy Madison.  At the end of the term, they have to recreate their favorite painting. Madison loves that part of the term.

There are several things you could do for a quick and easy activity. You can make color wheels. 

Of course , you could blend colors using your color wheel.


Dover has a ton of coloring books for the great artists. They are phenomenally done.  We color a page from our artist using different mediums.  Watercolor, pastels, paint, markers.  etc.  We learn what these mediums do and how they react to different things you do.  All while  learning about the artist as well.

Family Tree Tiles at Picassoz Cup

I also like to sign up for local art classes at a nearby pottery studio.  This affords us the opportunity to learn about different mediums cheaply but in a fun way.  If you have friends join you , it's even better.