Coming soon! H@H Kids “April Showers Bring May Flowers” Drawing

March 23, 2021

The next episode in the Heckscher @ Home Kids Edition Art Activity series is coming soon!

Kids are invited to watch the premiere of a fun new “April Showers Bring May Flowers” drawing project.  The video will premiere above and on the Museum’s YouTube Channel on Saturday, April 3 at 10:15 am.

Project Overview:

For this Heckscher at Home Kids Edition, we will be inspired by artwork from the Museum’s collection! Together, we will look closely at Fredrick H. Buchholz’s First Sign of Spring and Gertrude Fiske’s Spring. After getting inspired by these paintings, we will get creative and make our own artwork!

Materials:

  • white paper
  • pencil
  • eraser
  • colored pencils/crayons/markers

Key Concepts:

  • pattern
  • shape
  • details

Discussion:

Spring is the season when everything blooms anew! Have you noticed we get a lot of rain in April? Trees, plants, and flowers all need the rain to help them grow big and strong! Sometimes we can think of rain as dreary or ruining our day, but have you ever gone out in the rain to just have some fun? Next time try jumping in a puddle, twirling your umbrella, and enjoy the April showers that help all the flowers grow! 

Today, let’s look at some works of art from the Museum’s collection to get inspired for our project. We’ll be taking a close look at Fredrick H. Buchholz and Gertrude Fiske’s paintings! These artists like to look carefully at the world around them and share what they see through their artwork. Let’s begin with Fredrick’s painting! Have you ever noticed how a plant begins to grow? What kind of shape do you notice? The artist is showing us how the plant looks when it’s just a seed and then begins to grow into a sprout. Imagine yourself in this painting, what other things do you think you would see, feel, or smell? 

Let’s compare this painting to Gertrude’s! Can you name some of the details in this painting? This older gentleman is getting ready for Spring, how can we tell? We notice that he’s holding a book about planting, there are gardening tools in the background, and we can see a little sprout starting to grow in a pot, just like we saw in Fredrick’s painting outside. 

Compare the little sprouts in the pot to the one in the first painting. What is different about them? The one outside is growing naturally, while others can be planted inside and cared for. How do you think the man in the painting is feeling? Is he excited for spring, concentrating on learning?

Today for our work of art, we’ll be thinking about all the fun we have watching April showers help turn into May flowers. 

Share!

Please share photos of your finished works of art with us on social media and check back soon for our next project! #HeckscheratHome #MuseumfromHome