Children’s Art Project for Mother’s Day, Inspired by Monet’s Love of Flowers

photo taken in Monet’s garden at Giverny

Monet loved flowers. Moms and Grandmothers do, too , so here’s an easy art project for children to do for Mother’s Day.

Monet’s garden at Giverny is as much a work of art as his paintings, and he often cut flowers to paint when the weather prevented him from working outdoors.

This project is an excerpt from an earlier post of mine about Renoir, another Impressionist who loved flowers!

Art Project for Mother’s Day

Supplies:  sturdy paper, pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, cheap watercolor set, brushes

Directons:

1. With a green crayon draw curving stems as if coming from a narrow vase in the middle at the bottom of the paper. (See illustration) (If your child is very young, you can draw the stems so that the bouquet isn’t too small)

 

2. With crayons of a variety of colors, draw the outlines of ‘flower’ shapes (daisies, circles, spirals, etc.) among, and at the end of, the stems. Leave coloring them in to the next step—painting.

3. Now, just like the Impressionists, paint blobs of paint right over the crayon ‘flowers’. Blobs work because the wax of the crayons repels the water color and shows through. (Encourage children to use small amounts of water to mix paint. Otherwise the colors get pretty watery)

4. While the flowers dry, trace on another piece of paper around each child’s hands (have them spread their fingers apart a little). Include a few inches of their arms. (use colored paper or children may color these and add rings, watches, etc.)

5. Cut out the hands.

6. Glue the hands, fingers interlaced with thumbs up, at the bottom of the painting as if they are holding the bouquet! (the fingers interlace more easily if the hands come together at an angle)

Voila!    Write Happy Mother’s Day across the top and give to Mom or Grandma!

Other Things to Do

• Visit Monet’s gardens online at   http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/visitgb.htm
• Visit art museums or go online to see Impressionist collections and see how many have flowers in them. Many American museums have at least a few, because Americans were among the first to buy their work. here’s a link to the Impressionist collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.   https://www.artic.edu/collection?style_ids=Impressionism
• Look at works by Mary Cassatt online. An American Impressionist artist living in Paris, she not only introduced many of her friends to Impressionist art and encouraged them to buy these works, but she painted many lovely works of mothers and children together.

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Don’t miss the next kathythepicturelady post with funny Molly photos.