Hand Print Franz Marc Expressionist Art with Kids

Hi friends!  Today's art activity is a super easy one that involves looking at colors, emotions, animals, and making hand prints.  It's such a great activity to do with kids of all ages!  Today we're inspired by German Expressionist Franz Marc's Blue Horse Paintings.

Hand Print Expressionist Art with Kids!

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Originally I got the idea for this activity from the awesome art book Modern Art Adventures.  I thought it would be perfect for my preschooler and I to try out together because we could easily explore and interpret the painting together. This activity would also go great with Eric Carle's The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse.

Observing the Painting

First, we looked at the painting together.  We talked about

• the colors we saw
• the subject of the painting
• what different colors meant to us (i.e., yellow = happy, red = powerful)

Creating Franz Marc- Inspired Artwork

After our very brief discussion, we got to work creating artwork that was inspired by the painting.  I told him that we were going to first create a background and then add our own horses to the foreground using hand prints.

I tried really hard not to push my preschooler to "recreate" the artwork.  Some kids love painting and drawing and crafting.  My son enjoys artistic activities some days... and other days he'd much rather just play with Lego.  I really want him to enjoy our art sessions and not get discouraged.  So I let him freely express himself and create his own vision.  He promptly said he was "going to do his own thing" and began drawing his signature superhero symbols on the page.  (I was just happy that he was still willing to draw with me!)

We used oil pastels and kwik stix to first add color to our background drawing paper.

Then, we made hand prints with our stamp pads.

I cut the hand print out and glued it to my artwork and then added a horse mane and face to my "blue horse" using Sharpie Markers.

My son just enjoyed making hand prints all over.  (And see the big "X" shape in the front?  It's his signature superhero symbol!)

I love his cute horse faces and tails!

The whole activity took less than a half an hour to set up and do.  And it was super easy to clean up too because we didn't use any paints.  (I love paints.... but these days our art times are so limited due to the new baby.  I still have to figure out how to make it all work with 2!)


Ok.   I hope you have a fun time exploring art with your kiddos!  And if you're looking for other artist-inspired activities, check out the links below!

 More Artist-inspired Activities!

• Modern Lichtenstein Dot Art with Kids
• Cutout Matisse Murals
• Easy Matisse Collages
• Calder Inspired Paper Sculptures

And if you're looking for other great art books, check out these!

Our 20+ Favorite Art Books!

• Colorful Dreamer
• A is for Art
• The Iridescence of Birds
• Modern Art Adventures
• Mix it Up
• Press Here
• Any Ed Emberley Book
• The Day the Crayons Quit
• Beautiful Oops
• Dog's Colorful Day
• Too Much Glue
• Harold and the Purple Crayon
• Day with No Crayons
• Artist to Artist
• Artist Ted
• The House Baba Built
• A Blue Butterfly: A Story of Claude Monet
• Sandy's Circus
• The Most Magnificent Thing
• The Artful Parent
• The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse
• Tangle Art and Drawing Games
• Quest
• Journey

Let's Keep in Contact!

You can always find more easy and fun ideas on my 

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Happy making, friends!