Great American Artists for Kids: Hands-On Art Experiences in the Styles of Great American Masters

by MaryAnn F. Kohl, Kim Solga

75 great American masters are introduced through open-ended quality art activities allowing kids to explore great art styles from colonial times to the present. Each child-tested art activity presents a biography, full color artwork, and techniques covering painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, architecture, and more. Special art options for very young children are included. Many great artists will be familiar names, like Cassatt, Warhol, and O'Keeffe. Other names will be new to some, like Asawa, Smithson, and Magee. Each featured artist has a style that is interesting to children, with a life history that will entertain and inspire them.

Sample of some of the artists and companion
Andy Warhol - Package Design
Bev Doolittle - Camouflage Draw
Dale Chihuly - Pool Spheres
Maya Lin - Memorial Plaque
Jasper Johns - Encaustic Flag
Joseph Raffael - Shiny Diptych
Roy Lichtenstein - Comic Sounds
Thomas Jefferson - Clay Keystone
Edward Hopper - Wash Over
Grant Wood - Gothic Paste-Up
Wolf Kahn - Layered Pastel
Jackson Pollock - Great Action Art
Mary Cassatt - Back-Draw Monoprint
Louis Comfort Tiffany - Bright Windows
Hans Hofmann - Energetic Color Blocks
Rube Goldberg - Contraption
Georgia O'Keeffe - Paint with Distance

2009 Moonbeam Children's Bronze Award
2009 Benjamin Franklin Award

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Childrens

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Read more about me at my website if you wish.
http:// www. brightring. com
I write art books for children, parents, teachers, and homeschoolers.
And I love love love art for kids!!!

My blog:
http://maryannfkohl.typepad.com/blog/

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan]

I was thrilled to win this book at the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program. In fact I was too excited to wait for it to arrive and so I read another similar book by the same author called Discovering Great Artists: Hands On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38...

Both of these books are outstanding and I see the author has other similar books as well. When this book arrived, I ended up putting down all my other currently reading books and read the whole thing, and I really enjoyed it.

This book includes so many of my favorite American artists (Ansel Adams, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, and so many others; I hate to even mention any as I’m leaving out so many others who are included) and also artists that kids are likely to enjoy such as Wayne Thiebaud (I love him) and Andy Warhol (not so much.)

The book is designed for kids ages 4-12 to learn about the many artists featured and to create art in the same style or using the same media, without at all diminishing the opportunity for creativity for the young artists.

This is a perfect book for adults and young adults who work with children as tutors, teachers, group leaders, counselors, parents, babysitters, etc. etc. It’s a great book to use with those children who are interested or not yet interested in art and artists.

The book is very well laid out so that it’s easy to choose appropriate and interesting projects. The artwork (of the featured artists and of children) and the photos are terrific.

The book features artists and an example/examples of their work and it generally goes in chronological order. There’s a lot of interesting information about all the artists including a birthday calendar at the back of the book.

Each artist usually gets 2 book pages. On each there are icons that give information about the featured project.

The icons are:

child experience
adult plan & prep
art technique (such as draw, paint, clay, computer)
artist style (such as abstract, cartoonist, illustrator, installation art, potter, realist)

I could go on and on about all the artists (some I learned of for the first time or learned new things about them) and the projects. These projects in general do take a certain amount of time, but they look well worth it. Unfortunately, most of the projects require a certain amount of supplies and most cost money. I’d love to see this book and the needed supplies available at schools and youth groups and camps, and ideally in homes, but I realize not every child is going to have easy access to all. Luckily (as in the other book mentioned) some of the art projects require just a minimal amount of supplies that are available to virtually every child in some setting to which they have access.

I’ve known children interested in art but who struggle with reading and following directions, and this book would be a great resource for them, allowing them to learn in a fun and effective manner. I also have known children who don’t feel confident enough to create art and this book could be a help for these children as well.

I am so grateful to own this book. (The other book I borrowed from the library so unfortunately don’t have it handy.) I wish my teachers and Camp Fire Girls leaders, and my parents had had a resource such as this. Older kids can read this book on their own and can also do many of the projects on their own too.

[Sandra]

Some really great references for elementary art teachers. I think for them it's a must have.

But given how many experimental and lesser known artists they did include, I feel like it could easily have been curated to be less white and male than it ended up.

(Especially given unmentioned things like Gutzon Borglum's sympathy for white nationalism, Edmonia Lewis would provide great alternate inspiration for sculpture...)

Also, as cute as the idea of having kid drawnesque artists portraits is, I think having an image of the artist is important as a chance for children to see themselves. I keep thinking of the author who was saying he was in college before he saw a photo of Alexandre Dumas and realized he was biracial.

[Wendy Roberts]

If you've ever planned on teaching art, on any scale or to any age group, MaryAnn Kohl's books are a must-have. I've received lots of compliments on the neat art projects that the kids at school do....but the truth is, I just steal and borrow my best ideas from her!

[Sydney Harris]

I am in this book!

[Susan Librarian]

An invaluable resource for art classes and art play as well as educational information about artists and their art, especially liked how they included many lesser known artists that are both interesting and inspirational - the latter as prompts for creating the art projects which are described.

[Karla]

great resource for teaching - springboards many ideas for children to creatively explore

[Wylaina]

Great ideas for introducing art and artists to kids.

[Nancy]

Great art project ideas and interesting mini biographies.

[Kristin White]

Kohl, M. F., & Solga, K. (2008). Great American artists for kids: Hands-on experiences in the styles of great American masters. Bright Ring Publishing.

Citation by: Kristin White

Type of Reference: Biographical Reference

Call Number: Ref 702.8 Kohl 2008

Content/Scope: This biographical reference explores the art and lives of 75 great American artists Mary Cassatt to Jackson Pollack. Great American Artists for Kids includes classic artists, which many will find familiar, as well as new names to some, such as Asawa and Smithson. Each artist's information includes their his/her history, why his/her work is important, and a kid-tested activity using that artist's style of technique. This reference not only teaches readers about the artists themselves but also encourages students to be creative and get inspired.

Accuracy/Authority/Bias: Great American Artists for Kids has been on the shelves of classrooms and libraries for year. The website of the authors show their desire to create an accurate, unbiased account of each artist presented in the book.

Arrangement/Presentation: The entries include full-color illustrations along with each biography, and the artists are grouped by the time period during which they were most "artistically alive." The pages have been organized in a way so that it is easy to read, inspiring, and engaging.

Relation to other works: Discovering Great Artists is a companion book to Greta American Artists for Kids, and it would be beneficial to purchase them together. However, there are not many other works that are so accessible to young children that present so many artists, their work, and their stories all in one place.

Accessibility/Diversity: Because of the easy to read text, full-color pictures, and illustrations, this book is accessible to a variety of readers from Kindergarten to 5th grade. The biographical subjects of this text vary in gender, race, ethnicity, style, and life story. What a wonderful resource to showcase the beauty of diversity in art.

Cost: $18.95

Professional Review: Great American Artists for Kids, by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga. (2009). School Arts, 109(3), 13.

[AnandaTashie]

Really fun, well put together book! Each artist has a paragraph describing their life and work, usually a color photo or two of their art, and an art activity inspired by their approach / style.

Ones I plan to do with my kids:

Edward Hopper / Feelings Wash Over
Frank Lloyd Wright / Bubble Window
Charles Demuth / Homage Portrait Collage
Joseph Cornell / Box Assemblage
Rube Goldberg / Invent A Rube Goldberg
Richard Diebenkorn / Stain Painting
Wayne Thiebaud / Yummy Cake Painting
Pepon Osorio / Trinket Sculpture
Bev Doolittle / Camouflage Mixed Media

[Shae]

Each page has a brief history of an American artist, an example of their work, and instructions on an artistic project for children with difficulty ratings. For example, the page on Dale Chihuly shows one of his outdoor glass sculptures in a pond, and then has the children gather outdoor materials and paint ping pong balls to nestle in the pile, all rated for a younger audience. I am SO impressed with the format and content of this book and look forward to using it with Nathan some summer in the future. That's why I'm saving it for maybe when Nathan hits about 3rd grade.

[Kourtney]

I am a homeschool mom of two elementary children. This is a wonderful book to utilize for art education. It combines art theory with art history. My children have really enjoyed these projects. Projects have a variety of mediums with great instructions and examples.

[Nancy P]

Teaching third grade in my past, I found children really enjoyed looking at classic art, discussing it, and creating their own vesions. Wish I had owned this book then--my preparation would have been much easier!

[Kalena]

Children's art book that educates and encourages creativity. The blurbs were short enough to keep my children's attention, gave cute pictures made by other kids, and then an idea for artwork based on the featured artist/art form. Cute idea!! Highly recommend for budding artists (big and small!)

[MaryAnn Kohl]

Visit http://www.brightring.com/greatameric...
Enjoy free sample pages from the book, as well as children's artworks -- and more. :o)

[Adrienne]

I thought this had some great production ideas, geared more toward elementary and middle school.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Y.Poston]

great organization for learning about artists,
short, bios w/ art examples & proposed art projects
in the style of each artist