The Usborne Art Treasury

This cool art book features 22 works of art from around the world. Each work of art includes a brief description of the art work and the artist who created it. The artists included in this book include Van Gogh, Hokusai, Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Degas, O'Keeffe, and others. Each work of art is followed by a related art project for kids. The art projects were the best part. Most of them are relatively simple and use common art supplies. The finished art projects are quite impressive. Jacob really enjoyed doing the pastel and water color fish painting below which was inspired by a painting called "The Golden Fish" by Paul Klee. The Usborne Art Treasury was recommended by a friend and fellow blogger. You can check out her daughter's very cool swirly landscape painting here which is inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

Jacob's fish painting was very easy to complete. I showed Jacob how to draw some simple fish, waves, and underwater plants. He practiced on scrap paper and then drew them lightly in pencil on a sheet of watercolor paper. Next he traced over his drawing with oil pastels. The book said you could use wax crayons as well. Then he simply painted water on his picture and added blue and green water colors (the cheap kind) to cover the entire piece of paper. We were both so pleased with the results!

The Usborne Art Treasury is a very inviting book with beautiful bright pictures throughout. We are excited to try some more projects out of this book in the near future.