This Damien Hirst butterfly collage is a great process art activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Damien Hirst’s Ascended is a great piece that little artists can get inspiration from while enjoying the process of creating. (And improve small motor skills at the same time!)
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Process art is about the process and not about the product. Developmentally, toddlers and preschoolers benefit most from art that focuses on the process of creating art. This means that 2-5 year olds should be spending time exploring ways to make art, rather than spending time creating an exact replica of an example art piece.
How To: The Artwork
Supplies:
- White card stock OR yellow card stock cut into circles
- ModPodge OR tape
- Paintbrushes and washable yellow paint (only if using white card stock)
- Butterflies drawn on blue card stock and cut out
Directions:
Option 1 – Painted Background
Each child needs one of the card stock pieces, a paintbrush, paint and their drawn and cut-out butterflies. The kids should paint the entire card stock circle yellow. Make sure the paint is thick because it is going to be used like glue. After the circle is painted, the children can stick the butterflies onto the paint wherever they want, like Hirst’s Ascended.
Option 2 – No Paint Required
The kids need yellow card stock, cut into a circle, and their drawn and cut-out butterflies. The kids can stick the butterflies onto the yellow circle with tape or with ModPodge. Watch the video below for instructions!
How To: The Program
My art class allows 2-5 year olds and their caregivers to explore art in a way that engages their senses and helps them understand the world around them. Exploring famous artists and their work allows kids to see that they are capable of making beautiful, creative and thought-provoking artwork. Plus, exploring famous artists and their work provides a unique way to teach children about basic art techniques.
Like collages. Which brings me to Damien Hirst.
Damien Hirst is a unique, modern artist. He often uses real animals in his artwork, but I stuck with paper butterfly wings instead of real butterfly wings for the purpose of this class.
Group Stories:
To kick off the class, I had the kids sit on the storytime circles and help me match the artwork in the back of Art for Baby by various with the matching artwork on the pages of the book. Then, we read Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek. It’s not a book about Damien Hirst, but it’s a lovely book about butterflies that the kids really enjoyed.
Individual Art:
By this time, the kids were getting antsy and ready to explore “nature” like Damien Hirst. I gave each child the supplies, depending on which option they were doing – painted or paint-free.
The caregivers were great because they made sure the kids covered their entire circle with enough paint. The kids then stuck the butterflies onto the paper to complete their collages.
I had markers and a butterfly coloring page from Best Coloring Pages for Kids all ready to entertain the kids for the last few minutes of the half hour.
And those are our two options for Damien Hirst butterfly collage!
The young artists were happy, the young artists’ caregivers were happy and the young artists’ librarian was happy, so it was a successful morning in Young Artists! Woohoo!