Kids Get Arty: Romero Britto

I re-discovered Romero Britto specifically while selecting our artist for our participation in Kids Get Arty, the bi-monthly art challenge from Red Ted Art to Explore the Great Artists with kids. 

He is a Brazilian-American artist and I knew immediately when I saw his work that he was the artist for us and also perfect with Valentine's Day right around the corner, as I love his graphic heart prints. He is one of those artists whose work I had seen before, even though I was not aware (at the time) of his name. 

While he also does sculpture, installations and portraits as well, I was inspired by his Fine Art Prints and their graphic bold colors and style, and Wild Thing really liked them too. Plus, I thought this idea would lend itself really well to sticky paper collage art, perfect for little hands like my Pre-K boy and toddler. Here are the two heart prints that inspired this activity:

To get started, I just pulled out scraps of wrapping paper, tissue paper and gift bags we already had -- pair that with contact paper and you are basically all set. A bonus aspect of this activity was engaging Wild Thing and Caterpillar in helping me make the scraps, not just create their sticky art. I love it when they can be involved in preparing an activity, and they love it too. For Wild Thing, who is 3 and just started learning to cut last month, this is great cutting practice, especially since the cuts do not need to be accurate. As for Caterpillar, I gave him some well-used/worn tissue paper to rip apart and he had a blast! (To capture the Britto style more accurately, bigger pieces would have been more appropriate than the small pieces the boys cut and ripped, but I decided we could spare the accuracy in favor of fun.)

I love the intensity in his face as he rips the tissue paper.

Once we had our scrapes all done, I collected them together in an egg carton and gave the boys pieces of contact paper for them to put their various wrapping/tissue paper scraps on. When they were done, I put another piece of contact paper on top and then cut out our hearts and other shapes. (These would work well for window-art too!)

I really loved our finished products and so did the boys - we also made some letters because we really loved the Alphabet Letters in the Britto collection.

I am sure we will do this activity again as it is so simple and so much fun. Grab your tissue paper or Christmas wrapping paper scraps (if you keep that type of thing) or hit up the dollar store and buy some bold, colorful papers and get going on your own Britto project - perhaps Britto-inspired hearts to put in your favorite window for Valentine spirit. I also love these prints by him that also offer wonderful inspiration for art with kids.
 

Whatever you do, enjoy! We certainly did. (I also made some coloring sheets inspired by Britto that I hope to add to this post soon). Oh - and do not forget to head over to Red Ted Art for her Andy Warhol post and to see what other great art activities have been linked up as part of Kids Get Arty this month! 

All of our collage pieces spread out together. Cannot wait to make more!

  
Here are some of other Kids Get Arty activities from 2012, including our Andy Warhol post, which was are most popular Kids Get Arty post of last year. 

Pop Art: Andy Warhol

Milk Painting: Van Gogh

 










Sharing this post at: Monday Kid Corner, Artsy Play Wednesday, It's Playtime