Blue Dogs Inspired by George Rodrigue

Color has been an important topic lately in the studio. This lesson had the children create tempera paintings inspired by the Cajun artist George Rodrigue. His Blue Dog series has always been popular among my young students. We talked about his use of color, and how only the nose of his blue dog was left white in the paintings we viewed. The children were each given a palette to try to create colors beyond the ones poured out of the containers. They created tints and shades of blue, light greens, dark reds, browns, and yellowy oranges. The environment that their dog sat in was their choice, but it had to be filled with color as well. I can't stop looking at their lively, colorful paintings!