Land Art Lesson

Land Art, or Earth Art is an exciting and unique fine art that has its roots in the early 1960's.  The concept is simple: the land provides the raw materials to be used in an art project or sculpture, which is created on the same land the materials came from.  It is photographed and left.  Eventually, the land and elements reclaim all the materials and the sculpture itself.

I introduced my children to Richard Shilling, a professional Land Artist who lives and works in the United Kingdom.  We looked at a lot of his projects on his website here.  He also has a wonderful website for children: Land Art for Kids.  My kids were very excited to get outside and get to work!

They hunted for the perfect rocks and sticks.  They fought over dirt and tools.  In the end, a lot of the sculptures resembled castles!

Then my daughter had another idea that she was even more excited about.  It took her some time, but she gathered a pile of oak leaves, poked a small hole in each one, strung them on a long piece of grass, and tied the grass to make a hanging "decoration for the tree."  She even expected that Richard Shilling would have been impressed with her idea!

She found a spot on the tree where she thought it belonged.  In order for her to get it there, she had to stand on a ladder and I had to hand her the branch.  She was very pleased with her work when it was all done!

One of the wonderful things about this type of art is that it works for all ages.  We did it with 2-6 year olds, but even adults and older children can enjoy and be challenged by it!

I am sharing this over at the Spring Learning and Play Blog Hop at Teach Beside Me!  Make sure you stop by and see all the great Spring posts!

Here is the line up:

Monday

Teach Beside Me  ~ Nature and Play ~   Royal Baloo  ~Life with Moore Babies

Tuesday

The Pleasantest Thing ~ Artchoo ~ Smiling like Sunshine ~ Preschool Powol Packets 

Wednesday

Growing Green Fingered Kids ~ Inspiration Laboratories
~ Montessori Tidbits ~Wildflower Ramblings

 Thursday

Kitchen Counter Chronicles ~ No Doubt Learning
~ Sugar Aunts~ Craft to Art ~ From a Country Road

Friday

Rainy Day Mum ~ Creative Playhouse ~ Scribble Doodle and Draw ~ True Aim Education

Join in the fun and link up your Springtime Posts!

I may share at any of these parties!