On a cold rainy Saturday I took Andrew to an art program they do at the Edwardsville Art Center and we created a feline masterpiece.

Today’s project was taking a canvas and creating a dog or cat with colorful paints.

First, we had to trace out the cat in pencil on a piece of paper before doing it on the canvas. They had printed out color pictures of cats and dogs. We used that as a model to go by. The cat model was named Kazoo. Andrew and I worked together to do the tracing.

Then he wanted to also do a dog on another piece of paper using one of the dog photos.  He did this tracing on his own. I am always open to letting him do some creative work outside of the main project.

After comparing the two, we decided that the cat looked the best.

Now to Paint

We went to the art instructor and she had him pick out paints for a palette. He picked bright colors of red, blue, green and orange.

In my office at home, I have an Andy Warhol painting of a cat done in a bright green, so he must have gained this idea from what I have hanging on my wall. So we have a little Warhol artist in the making.

We sit back down and first trace out the cat.  Then we start painting in the cat using bright colors.  It is a sitting cat, which made painting easier.

After painting, he asks, “Can I sign it?”

I said sure, and I help him write out his name.

“Also, can I add my last name?”

So then we paint that out together.

The art teacher tells us we also have to put the cat’s name on it of Kazoo, which we also did.

Reflecting on the Project

This turned out to be a good project to also work on writing out his name and working on his letters.

We have to leave the painting there to dry and then will pick it up during the week.

This was probably one of the more cool projects to have done together.

He has started to really enjoy doing art and it is nice to create works of art together.

I think finding places like this in a town that you live in is both good for doing something together with the kid and also helping him become creative and imaginative.

Bring on the art projects!