Joan Miro Drawing

Supplies:
Blue paper
Black Sharpie pens
oil pastels

Today, the third graders learned about the artist Joan Miro and looked at his painting,
People at Night, Guided by Phosphorescent Tracks of Snails

First, I walked around the classroom showing each child the painting above (you could print this online.  This print is not available in the library).  We talked about what they saw in the painting.  First they made comments like, "Nothing.  Scribbles."  But then as they looked closer they saw, "a moon, spiderwebs, a face, shapes, etc." 

Then we talked about surreal art and how it looks to create something not realistic.  Next, we talked about Joan Miro and I shared a few facts from his life,  including that he has works of art dating back to when he was 8 years old.  (The kids thought that was pretty cool). 

As we started, I told them they would get to have a lot of creativity on this project, but one rule is, once they start drawing (with a black sharpie), they couldn't take their pen off the page until they filled the whole sheet with lines, squiggles, designs, and doodles.  If they felt like they made a mistake, I told them to just make it into a design.  After they filled the paper with the initial black lines, then they could go back in with the pastels or black marker and add details like eyes, teeth, coloring in shapes, etc.

This was an easy project and a great one to start the year with as we discussed how everyone creates different art, and it doesn't matter how one person's looks compared to another.  Art is art no matter what other people think of it.  (A great comparison is Miro's above to the Mona Lisa and point out how different they look, and yet they are both famous works of art). 

I think this lesson boosts confidence in their ability to make something look great and they had a lot of fun with it.  (I got this idea from the Usborne book My Very First Art Book).