Jackson Pollock and Scribbles

Today my girls were drawing pictures together. My oldest daughter admonished her younger sister that her picture "looked like scribbles" and so wasn't very good. She then tried giving her a lesson on how to draw.

To this our younger daughter (who was really concentrating on her picture) replied that the picture was how it was supposed to look and it reminded her of England. Her big sister wasn't convinced yet because it didn't look like anything she remembers from England.

We took the opportunity to show them a picture of a Jackson Pollock painting. As soon as I pulled up the picture, the six-year-old exclaimed, "that's splatter painting! That's one of my favorite types of painting!". We discussed how splatter paintings are "awesome" and some of our favorites, even though they aren't lifelike depictions. Then we looked at our drawing of England again and talked about how it can represent England in how it makes you feel rather than just how it looks.

Jackson Pollock is a very accessible artist for children and a great way for them to become interested in art theory.

"England", Anya Withington, 08/27/12, black marker on paper

The National Gallery and Discussing Da Vinci

Trafalgar Square, London
view next to the National Gallery (where "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Da Vinci is)

This week I was able to take my children with me on a day trip to London.  Miriam (my kindergartner) really wanted to go to an art museum while we were there, and Anya (my almost preschooler) was mostly excited about riding on trains.  To make them both happy, we took the tube to Charing Cross and went to the National Gallery.


Rather than trying to see everything there, we walked through rather quickly and then stopped at the pieces that interested the girls.  We were there for about an hour, and spent almost all of that time looking at only three pieces of art.  Of those, we spent the most time with "The Virgin of the Rocks" by Leonardo Da Vinci.  (I have also often heard this piece called "The Madonna of the Rocks", but I will use the name assigned by the National Gallery.)

We sat down in front of the painting and spent a long time discussing it.  Rather than lecturing my kids about it, I asked them questions and encouraged them to think about the painting for themselves.  We talked about a lot of the symbolism in the painting and some about Da Vinci.  While we were there an art historian from the Open University joined in and supplied some extra information.

Afterwards we went out into Trafalgar Square where they enjoyed chasing pigeons, looking at the fountain, etc.

Miriam is already asking when we can go to another art museum, and she kept talking about "The Virgin of the Rocks" and Leonardo Da Vinci.  Not all of you can take your kids to the National Gallery in London, but there are art museums around the world.  I think it's really beneficial for children to be brought to museums and galleries, exposed to art, and encouraged to think about it.  You can tie it in with lots of subjects.  For this painting, for example, you can study the painting itself, learn about Da Vinci and the time period, learn more about what Da Vinci did and his contributions to both art and science, make your own version of the artwork, write a story inspired by it or a paper about it...

For more information about Da Vinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks", click here.
For free lesson plans about Leonardo Da Vinci, click here.