Spring Activities... Pointillism with The Artful Parent

Last week my advanced copy of The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family’s Life with Art and Creativity arrived in the mail. I was beyond excited. Not only have I been a fan of Jean Van’t Hul’s incredible blog The Artful Parent forever, I’ve also been lucky enough to get to know her as a friend.

The Artful Parent is just as inspiring as I imagined it would be. Picking an activity to feature was difficult because there are so many I want to do RIGHT NOW! Jean has a way of making art a simple, fun learning experience. (And you know I’m a sucker for simple fun learning!)

Spring Activities… Pointillism

What you need: Cotton swabs, paint and paper.

We’ve been looking for things to do in spring and enjoying a lot of spring activities so I asked M and M to think of spring things for this project as well.

I explained that pointillism is using dots to create a picture. Using a scrap paper I made a few designs as an example.

Jean recommends looking at paintings by Seurat or other pointillists first. While I love the idea of extending learning in that way… I was so excited to start painting I forgot that step completely! I think I will add it to our summer plan and give pointillism another go.

Jean reminds us to let kids explore. I’ve had a lot of practice with that… Little M generally makes up her own plan. Using a cotton swab was a new experience for her and letting her explore the way she wanted was important.

While The Artful Parent does include over 60 art projects, it’s also a great resource for parents looking to make art a way of life. Jean shares ways to plan for art, make space for art and encourage your budding artist. If you are looking to be inspired, this book is for you!

I did say this was an advanced copy… but don’t worry the release is April 9th! If you don’t want to wait until Tuesday you can preorder The Artful Parent right now!