Picture This!: Activities and Adventures in Impressionism

by Joyce Raimondo

This second book in the Art Explorers series introduces kids to the world of impressionism, featuring the art of five famous impressionist Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edward Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Mary Cassatt. For each artist, a color reproduction of his or her famous artwork is paired with questions to get kids thinking about what they see. A short paragraph explains the artist's intentions, emphasizing facts of interest to kids. Easy-to-follow activities then provide hands-on experience with the artist's techniques, subject, and mediums, each illustrated with examples by actual kids. Techniques include drawing, painting, pastels, collage, watercolor resist painting, pointillism, sponge painting, mask-making, printmaking, sculpture, and more.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

These hands-on learning art books exploring impressionism does a fantastic job featuring 14 different activities and adventures for kids ages 6-16.
The book features famed artists including Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro and Cassata, even a little bit of Seurat

Activities include Pointilism Scene (much like Sunday in the Park with Seurat),
Monet-Seaside waves, seasonal tree, tissue paper nature collage
Renoir-Festral collage, dance painting
Degas-Pastel people in motion, action figures from clay, facial expression painting (my personal favorite choice of activities featured in the book)
Pissaro-Sponge city skyline, day and night oil pastels
Cassatt-me and my grown-up, baby portrait, plastic foam printing (geared for all ages)

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the volunteer fine art "docent" in my son's elementary school class. The books in this series are great introductions to different artistic movements/styles. Each painting description is also accompanied by an idea for a project children can create in the same style. My local library has a set and I check them out often.