Golden Road Arts develops comprehensive art guides geared towards elementary and middle school children. If you want to inspire children with accessible art lessons and hands-on tutorials, watch our free art lessons now.
Inspirational Summer Art Projects for Middle School Children
Middle school children often thrive when allowed to express themselves through creative outlets. By creating art at home, kids have the opportunity to problem-solve, improve hand-eye coordination and also develop many other skills. This summer, keep your children engaged with art using the following projects.
Summer Art Projects Inspired By Renowned Artists
Across various periods and genres, the output of great artists never fails to inspire the creative spirit. Here are some fun summer projects based on leading artists’ work. Also, visit each artist’s page for in-depth projects.
Yayoi Kusama – Infinity Dot Rooms
An exciting art project idea that kids will love is to create a miniature infinity dot room inspired by the iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Known for her fascination with polka dots, Kusama’s installations often include rooms covered in dots. To recreate this, you only need a small box, mirrors, glue – and dot stickers in various colors.
Before placing stickers on the mirrors, start by lining the inside of the box with mirrors. This project is a valuable introduction to optical illusions and contemporary art.
Claude Monet – Textured Garden Scenes
Claude Monet, the founder of French Impressionism, was famous for his beautiful garden paintings. Encourage children to create textured garden scenes using acrylic paint, sponges, paintbrushes and paper. Start by showing them pictures of Monet’s garden paintings.
Next, instruct them to dab sponges into paint and press these onto paper to mimic the texture and layering in Monet’s artworks. By blending colors and textures children become familiar with Impressionist techniques.
Edgar Degas – Wire Ballet Dancers
Edgar Degas is widely known for his ballet paintings and sculptures. Using ballet as inspiration, kids can create wire dancer sculptures. For this project collect craft wire, pliers and colored tissue paper. Children can bend and shape the wire into the form of a ballet dancer, then use the colored tissue paper to create a dress for the figure.
Toulouse-Lautrec – Character Portraits
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is known for capturing Parisian nightlife of the late 19th century through his portraits. A fun summer art project involves replicating the bold strokes and vibrant colors of Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting style. Why not discuss the history and culture of the time while creating eye-catching art?
Romare Bearden – Narrative Collages
The ability to express yourself visually is a key reason why kids need art. And this storytelling approach is present in the works of Romare Bearden. To create collage art inspired by Bearden, gather up patterned paper, old magazines, scissors, glue and a large piece of base paper. Children can cut out shapes, figures and patterns to arrange them into a narrative scene on the base paper.
Art Projects for Kids at Home
With children of all ages at home, alongside working parents, there has never been a better time to harness creativity as a source of fun and relaxation.
With kids diligently working at their desks for most of the day, they’ll need time out to enjoy hands on art and craft. At Pegasus Art we sell a whole variety of art sets for kids, materials and products to suit all age groups ~ from toddlers to college students.
FREE DELIVERY ON SMALL ITEMS. FREE DELIVERY OVER £50.
System 3 acrylic paint 59ml tubes £3.65
Your kids will love these tubes of acrylic paint available in 48 colours, including neon! Washable paints for kids are so popular.
Fimo modelling clay £2.50 per pack
Remember fimo? Enjoy hours of fun with fimo, available in 24 colours. You could make a whole farmyard of animals, beads, badges…. Kids craft materials never go out of fashion.
Marbling Kit for fabric and paper £23.00
Marbling is the perfect project for older age children from 11 + as it needs a little careful reading of instructions. The results are very effective! Lovely arts and crafts kits for kids.
Glitter poster paints £3.99
20ml pots of non-toxic glitter paints for children aged 3 upwards. A lovely painting kit for kids.
Koh i noor watercolour set £8.50
Fun four tier watercolour set with twenty four colours and a clear lid. Mixing well in the middle and gorgeous colours. Ideal children’s paint set for a bedroom studio!
Giotto Art Lab Easy Drawing Set £15.75
These clever art kits for kids from Giotto contain everything you need to get started with projects. We also sell the Painting and College Kits. This set contains: 1 Giotto Kids A4 album of white paper 90g/m2, 1 x 12 Giotto Stilnovo Bicolor pencils, 1 x 24 piece Giotto Cera wax crayons, 1 metal pencil sharpener, 1 graffiti scraper and 1 creative book. Excellent girls art set and boys art set.
Edinburgh Daler Rowney tabletop easel £28.43
For the committed older artist, this would be a lovely addition to your bedroom or kitchen table studio! A quality beechwood tabletop easel where you can safely store all your precious art materials.
Derwent Line & Wash Sketching Set £16.60
Brilliant investment for ongoing personal and school projects. This handy tin contains a selection of watersoluble graphite pencils, water brush, eraser shield, pencil sharpener and paper stump.
Flourescent Poster Paint £3.90
These vibrant flourescent post paints come in handy re-sealable 20ml pots. They are non toxic paints recommended for 3 year olds +. Washable paint for kids.
Rembrandt Soft Pastel Set in deep blue £5.95
These are lovely sets of five soft pastel sticks in a range of blues ~ many other colours available, please browse here.
Patterned Pig Sketchbook A4 £8.20
Fill this piggy sketchbook for kids ~ the 150gsm white paper is perfect for drawing and will withstand wet inks. Take it on your daily walk to capture local landscapes.
Carve a Stamp Kit £13.99
If you fancy personalising your own folders, letters or postcards this is a really fun way to create your own ‘logo’!
Ecoline Brush Pen Set £36.50
Do you have a budding fashion designer, illustrator or calligrapher in your family? This is the set that will give them a professional edge. Create watercolour effect on paper and board.
MasterCut Stamp Carving Kit £10.99
My nine year old son loved this kit – it has everything you need to design and cut your own lino stamp. A family crest perhaps?
Giotto Textile Marker Fabric Pens £8.95
Just think what you could design with this set of twelve fabric pens – shoes, caps, pillow cases, t-shirts, the list is endless. A lovely drawing kit for kids.
Giotto Turbo Colour Felt Tip Pens £4.50
Enjoy these Italian ‘pennarelli’ in 24 vibrant colours. They’re perfect for your NHS rainbow!
Caran d’Ache Pablo permanent colouring pencils £33.49
For the more committed artists amongst you, these Pablo pencils are a superb investment – 18 watersoluble, highly pigmented pencils in a tin. Ideal for layered, careful drawings.
DAS Terracotta Modelling Clay £3.80
Wonderful terracotta air drying modelling clay for kids – no need for firing. You can also paint acrylics onto it! 500g pack.
DAS Metal Moulds for clay £6.65
A fun set of metal moulds goes perfectly with the terracotta or white clay – you could make necklaces or even….Christmas decorations!
Lino Cutting & Printing Kit £30
A complete kit with everything you need to start some simple (or more ambitious) lino printing projects.
Kids Art Project Inspiration
The entrepreneurial artists we work with have come up with some brilliant initiatives to keep your young ones inspired. Here are a few ideas….
Free Vincent Van Gogh Colouring In
One of our workshop tutors, Van Gogh expert Sarah Wimperis, has come up with this lovely idea for hand drawn pages of colouring sheets for you to print out and enjoy with the whole family.
Art Sparks Sunflower Project
The brilliant Art Sparks duo, Liz & Tam, who usually teach our childrens art classes have come up with a very positive project. Simply make a collage of a sunflower out of anything you can find, take a photo and email it to [email protected] ~ the quirkier the better! They are encouraging elderly relatives to get involved too, with help from their grandchildren.
