Part Three of my series in Toddler Lessons is Toddler Art.
Toddlers love art, and they have a surprisingly sophisticated grasp on a wide range of artistic styles and techniques. Here are ten, as demonstrated by toddler artists.
1. Abstract Art
Abstract art is the primary style of the toddler artist. That yellow squiggle represents ‘Mummy, a mermaid and my sandwich’, mostly because toddler artists feel compelled to give an answer when asked what their squiggle is a picture of. Toddlers actually take the concept of abstraction beyond the confines of art, and can often be seen applying it as a general approach to life, sometimes spending entire days at a time engaging in activities with no connection to reality.
2. Baroque
Toddlers usually work in the Baroque style when creating art on walls and furniture, using exaggerated motion and clear, grandiose scribbles to effectively create drama and tension when the masterpiece is discovered by a parent.
3. Composition
Toddler artists can be identified by their unique take on composition. Toddlers like to arrange all visual elements in their artwork on top of each other in a tiny space, not quite on the corner of the paper, leaving the rest of the page blank.
4. Surrealism
Surrealism features very heavily in toddler artwork. Particularly when the artwork appears on the cat.
5. Colour Theory
In toddler art, colour theory is the belief that the visual effect of any piece of art can be substantially improved by the specific colour combination of liberally adding black over the top of everything else.
6. Portrait Painting
Toddler portrait paintings are slightly different, being intended not so much to depict a human subject as to appear on a human subject.
7. Impressionism
For toddlers, an impressionist work is a beautiful and intricate piece of art etched into the dining room table whilst the toddler was giving the impression of drawing on their paper.
8. Minimalism
Toddlers are minimalist geniuses, so much so that they can turn any piece of artwork into a minimalist masterpiece. A picture of a cat and some flowers, carefully drawn by Mummy for the toddler to colour in, for example, can be transformed into a minimalist study in blue, by the simple application of heavy and indiscriminate scribbling in blue crayon across the whole page. Such is a toddler’s commitment to minimalism that entire weeks can be spent agreeing to colour only in orange. The ultimate toddler exercise in minimalism is, of course, the careful colouring of a white sheet of paper in white crayon.
9. Expressionism
Toddlers sometimes like to use expressionism to colour on baby siblings, representing the subjective perspective that it is highly amusing to colour on baby siblings, and evoking moods of annoyance (parents) and confusion (baby sibling), and the idea that all pens should be removed from the house.
10. Conceptual Art
Like Tracey Emin’s work, much toddler art work leads firstly to confused whispering. ‘Is this art?’ ‘What is this meant to be?’ Followed by ultimately fruitless questioning of the artist, which leaves no one any the wiser. As conceptual art, toddler art is quite brilliant: the nature of art can consider itself questioned.
OK, I learned a lot! It’s been forever since my art history and art classes in college and forgot a lot of these terms. Need to bookmark so I can review before we go museum-ing next time!
Genius. And so true! I love art and exaggerated motion with my paint brush is where it’s at! …on the walls and on our cat! Your post was like an art lesson! Thank you #JustAnotherLinky #KCACOLS x
Who knew there was such a science behind toddler art! #KCACOLS
I would love to see her take on performance art!
x Alice
#kcacols
Love this! I feel my daughter is definitely a budding surrealist. x #KCACOLS
there is nothing more awkward than when they put you on the spot and you’re supposed to know what the painting is. ummmm…great….cow? No, its a truck. damn.
I still have crayon marks on a few of my walls from when I painted my walls over the first set of crayons and markers that my youngest did when he was 3 years old but then after I painted the walls, he went right behind me after the walls dried and drew some more. Lol! I will eventually repaint those walls!
My 5 kids were always drawing, colouring and creating. Now that most of them are grown and having their own babies, I enjoy doing crafts with my grandkids! This is a wonderful resource. Thanks!!
Ah yes, the jous of trying to decipher what a toddlers picture is, a cat, a tree…oh of course its a car!! Using themselves as a canvas is also somethinf my kids did as toddlers. #anythinggoes
haha Love this! Another fab post. I think my threenager has nailed surealism! 🙂 #anythinggoes
This is actually genius! I can relate to all these different artistic styles… #AnythingGoes
Haha, I really feel like I’m learning a lot from this series. My boy is a pro at abstract, minimalist and composition art. Things that look like blobs of paint to me are in fact helicopters, trains and animals according to the artist!xx #anythinggoes
Love this! Hilarious and also a legitimate lesson in art techniques! #fartglitter
This is hilarious! I feel like I learnt a lot too haha. #marvmondays
I look forward to other items in the series such as the toddler style, toddler decluttering, toddler entertaining etc. So much to learn! 🙂
What a great series! Brings back memories of doing GSCE and A Level Art! My youngest likes to add black on top of everything too – what is with that?!
Thank you so much for linking up to #KCACOLS I hope to see you back again on Saturday 27th when the linky opens again. x
Love this. I feel educated and entertained! I think we’ve pretty much ticked off all those boxes although crayons are for babies. Real toddlers use lip gloss. 😉
#AnythingGoes
Amazing as always and I was giggling louder with each point. “Particularly when the artwork appears on the cat…” Beyond genius!
Dawn x
#fartglitter
We’re firmly heading down the abstract/conceptual route! Ooo I can’t wait for the next lesson! #KCACOLS
Haha, the joys of toddler art! I find crayon in the strangest of places, floors, windows, and pen on our quilt covers, I don’t even know how or where? >_< Thanks for linking up to #MarvMondays. Kaye xo
Ha ha. Brilliant. I think at some point all five of my kids mastered most of these. I wonder which category painting the walls with the contents of ones nappy falls into. My youngest boy and middle daughter were both masters of THAT! 😉
This is hilarious as always. I’m so glad to know that my toddler has been studying fine art. Who knew? #abitofeverything
Ha ha! This reminds me of the doc ‘My Kid Could Paint That’ where is the line between art and fart? My son is definitely a minimalist. Always coming home with one red splodge.
Haha- this is why all our art things are under lock and key 🙂
#fartglitter
LOVE! We also have a great deal of pointilism occuring in our house, which manifests itself in the form of dirty fingerprints on the walls. #fartglitter
Very impressive Art lesson. We are only at handprint stage so far! #BESTANDWORST
The big one hardly ever produced ‘art’ when he was at playgroup. I longed for the day he would run out with a picture for Mummy. When he finally did it was a single yellow line on a piece of paper. He insisted it was put on the wall at home for all to see! Thanks for linking up to #FridayFrolics
There really is so much more behind the children’s art. Thank you for linking up to #justanotherlinky xx
I loved this. Impressionism Lol.
Monet and Manet well it’s very easy. One is spelt with an “o” and the other with an “a”. Silly. #abitofeverything
I’m more amazed how much you seem to know about art!! I will send over one of the gremlin’s pictures and you can tell which type of art it resembles. It may be worth something one day! hehe. Thanks for sharing with #bestandworst x
Coming back from #abitofeverything. Thanks for linking xx
So clever as usual! Brilliant. I think you’ve inadvertently taught me more in this one blog post than I ever learned in an entire term of my French painters’ romanticism course! Hilarious. #abitofeverything
LOL! When my son was young his room was decorated with baroque art, all over! It was quite the piece of work! In fact, after cleaning it up and him creating right back over it I decided that it could stay until we moved! LOL It was the only room that we had to repaint before we moved. At least his artistic decorating talent was confined to one room!
I absolutely love this, the funniest thing I’ve read all week!
I am guilty of what many other art critics are guilty of: sitting and trying to read into the message that the foot-smeared paint splodges are trying to convey. Of course, the answer is nearly always willypoopootrump.
Popping back from #BestAndWorst x
Oh this took me back to my Art level. Toddler sounds very talented 😉 Thanks for linking to #PickNMix
Haha! Color theory is so true!
Hahaha I feel like I’ve learned something today! My daughter is a master of baroque.
Thanks for linking! #chucklemums
Thanks for cheering me up this dreary Monday morning with this. Yup, surrealism is most definitely the buzz word when it comes to toddler art! Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub lovely x
Favourite line… “Particularly when the artwork appears on the cat.” Lots of fun. Found you on the Prabs #BlogStars list.
Hilarious! my little one isn’t quite walking yet so I’ve yet to see any of his “artwork”. I look forward to it though!