George Rodrigue is one of our favorite artists! I have to honestly say there has not been a single sopping wet blue dog painting that has ever been schlepped out out of this studio that I didn’t fall madly in love with and want to personally take home! We paint “blue dogs” with students as young as four, which, truth be told, are usually my favorites! Sometimes they look like Scooby Doo, sometimes their heads aren’t attached to their bodies, and sometimes they have Dumbo ears and a single leg protruding out of the side of their head, but they are all beautiful in their own special way! Keep scrolling to see the incredible art inspired by George Rodrigue our students created!
Depending on the age of the class, we often inspire the kids by reading Why is Blue Dog Blue, a gift from one of our favorite students, or excerpts from Blue Dog Man.
We love to draw & paint super large blue dogs on the wall with tempera paint, or small acrylic paintings (this makes a great project for a value study – just let them decide what color they want their dog to be, then give them a dot of white and black paint and let them mix the different shades of that color). We’ve also done a really fun (albeit very challenging) papier mache blue dog! I seem to recall more than one of them hobbling out of here on only three legs.
So why is blue dog blue? Hmmm…well, as you can see blue dog isn’t aaaallllways blue….
i LOVE these! they are all so amazing! every time I hear the phrase “blue dog” I can’t stop singing the song by johnny bregar by the same name (hear a sample here: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Dog/dp/B0016K367C ). Very catchy. Maybe the kids could paint with this music in the background next time? thanks for sharing this great project!