For Andell Family Sundays, LACMA visitors of all ages are invited to make art at the museum on Sunday afternoons. Alongside these in-person workshops, Unframed publishes blog posts especially for families. Here, kids can find out more about landscapes in LACMA’s permanent collection and the free workshops inspired by them.
Landscape paintings are a great way to show a time and place. Artists make landscapes, which depict scenes of nature, to create a memory of home, a special place, or something unique that they imagined.
Have you ever sketched a place you’ve never seen before? How do you remember certain moments in time, like when you see wildflowers in bloom or a new mural on the street? If you want a chance to make colorful landscape paintings, then you will love Andell Family Sundays this month, when you can make art inspired by modern landscape paintings now on view at LACMA.
Start your visit by checking out LACMA’s Modern Art Galleries in BCAM, Level 3. Slowly walk through the galleries and take notice of any painting of land or natural scenery. Soon you will see Raoul Dufy’s Paris. It is the artist’s impression of the city where he lived in 1934, which is the year that he painted it. Notice the Eiffel Tower, the River Seine, and other landmarks. You can even tell what the weather was like.
Close by, you will see David Hockney’s Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio, which shows the artist’s twisty drive through the Hollywood Hills, right here in Los Angeles. In this landscape, the artist and you, the viewer, move and discover things near and far, above and below, all at once, as if you were looking out of a car window.
Both artists painted their home towns in vibrant colors. What other connections can you make between these two paintings?
When you are ready to make your own art, head outside to find the Andell Family Sundays workshops, which are designed for all ages. They are located behind the Resnick Pavilion, facing Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass, which is the title of LACMA’s big rock!
At this month’s workshops, artist Bianca Argueta will show you landscape paintings both urban and rural. She’ll teach you about complimentary colors on the color wheel and give you black paper, pencils, and oil pastels to make your colorful landscape. Practice your mark making and mix colors with your finger or an eraser. Two young artists I spoke with were inspired by their surroundings at LACMA and drew palm trees and the big rock!
Artist Shannon Green will ask you to think about meandering lines, zig zags, and diagonals when you start your landscape painting. If you turn one of those into the horizon line (where the sky and earth meet on your page), you are on your way to an original landscape. Use watercolor paints, pencils, crayons, and markers to add details to your rural, urban, or even Martian scene! The young artists I saw at work made paintings with two suns (one orange and one green), “crazy town” green sun rays, and silver clouds with frozen lightning bolts. Another artist created a silver dragon in the mountains.
But wait, there’s more! You can also join our Fiber Maker's Circle that takes place at Andell Family Sundays. It’s a great way to relax while working with materials like yarn and fabric. You can learn embroidery, crochet, and pom pom making, or bring your own project from home.
Andell Family Sundays: Make A Scene takes place on March 16, 23, and 30 from 12:30–3:30 pm. Keep your eyes on our full calendar of programs for even more fun activities. Don’t forget, Sunday, March 16, is Socal Museums Free-For All, when the whole family can come to LACMA for free. Even if you can’t make it, NexGenLA is our free membership for kids 17 and under, so you can make coming to LACMA a part of your everyday life!