Blue Dog

I have to admit I hadn't really heard about "Blue Dog" until I entered the world of art ed websites / blogs.  Then I started seeing references to it everywhere.  After a little research I learnt that artist George Rodrigue was responsible for this Blue Dog phenomenon.  He has painted Blue Dog in many ways and in many places.  His foundation the George Rodrigue Foundation does wonderful work in helping cultivate creativity in youth.  I just love the fact that Blue Dog is an unusual colour, this resonates so much with what I teach, that you can paint things whatever colour you like.  He has a few wonderful books which are now on my want list - Why is Blue Dog Blue? and Are you Blue Dogs Friend?

Before class we watched a video about George Rodrigue click here for the link.  I just love how he says that you need to listen to your heart and paint what you want, needless of what others tell you.  You need to paint for yourself.  Wonderful stuff!

Here are our Blue Dog pictures created by my Tuesday and Thursday classes.  We used a black sharpie to do the outline and painted with tempera paint.  I demonstrated how to draw a dog on the whiteboard for the children that needed some help.  Children were instructed to draw anything into the background of their blue dog and we took this opportunity to discuss how sometimes artists put messages into their paintings if they are passionate about things.  Of course Blue Dog doesn't really have to be blue which is why some are not.......Also with Christmas just around the corner many have a Christmas feel to them.

Cute!



Our artist of the week was George Rodrigue.  Here is one of his famous paintings of Blue Dog.  You can view others on his website click here.

 

Cheers
Fiona