What would Chinese New Year be without Beijing being dressed in its best red outfit? Like every other year, the city is getting ready to celebrate: roads are lined with red lanterns, doors are covered with “upsidedown fortune”,red papercuts decorate the windows, new chopsticks are bought, new hopeless bans on fireworks are issued, updated Nianhua
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Art history
Floating through the narrative universe of Marc Chagall’s art
What makes Chagall’s art so special? Ask me, and I would say it is the richness of the imaginary world he built with his art. Of course, he was an outstanding colorist, but I don’t believe his works would have been as powerful without the incredible set of characters that he created. His paintings are
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Art Education
How to teach Chagall’s art? Thoughts on art and storytelling
Why Chagall? I was thirteen and about to start art school when 150 of Chagall’s painting arrived in Turin for an incredible exhibition of the artists’ oeuvre. To this day, I remember the guided tour I joined with my parents and the incredible journey we did through Chagall’s art and life: 19th century Russia, the
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Painting
Kandinsky Circles Lesson for Kids: Practical color theory
Kandinsky’s Circles Lesson for Kids: Color theory made Fun Here comes another variation on the Kandinsky circles paintings theme. Last time we used polymer clay, while on this post I’d like to share a painting activity using rice paper (Xuan paper) and gouache. The underestimated Xuan paper I have a little confession to make: I
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Art Education
How to make color theory actually fun
AKA, how to take one of the least creative bits of art education and make it inspiring. The issue with teaching color theory (most times) While color theory is definitely significant in art practice, the actual argument has arguably more to do with science than with art. This is to say, that color theory classes
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Book Recommendations
17 Lovely Children's Books about Winter
Winter is the perfect season to gather around a book under a cozy blanket as the snow falls outside.
Here is a collection of my favorite winter books for preschoolers and young readers.
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Book Recommendations
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Children Books | Art Sprouts’s Favourite Pick
Have you seen the rabbit on the moon? Many Chinese believe that you can see a hare on the moon, pounding in a pestle the Elixir of Long life for Chang’E, the Moon Goddess of Immortality.
The legend tells us about Chang’E, the faithful wife of Hou Yi the archer that saved humanity by shooting down all but one of the Ten Suns that were scorching earth and killing crops.
His brave actions were rewarded by The Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wang Mu) with one dose of the Elixir of Long Life she brewed in her heavenly orchard.
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Print-Making
Frottage Abstract Art: out of the box Kandinsky art project
What is frottage? From the French frotter, to rub, frottage is an art technique popularized by surrealist artists at the beginning of the 20th century. At it simplest, frottage is done by lying a thin sheet of paper on a textured surface and gently “rubbing” over it with a soft pencil to highlight the embossed texture.