10 Frederic Remington Art Projects for Kids
We’ve got some beautiful Frederic Remington Art Projects for Kids to celebrate the work of this amazing American artist during his birthday month!
“The artist must know more than the camera.” ~ Frederic Remington
When you think of cowboys or movies based on American westerns, you’re likely to have certain images in your mind. Have you ever wondered how that entire genre came about? Well, it was all thanks to Owen Wister’s stories as well as the illustrator of his work, American artist Frederic Sackrider Remington.
Look at this painting for instance. Doesn’t it look like a scene from a movie? This painting is ‘The Charge of the Rough Riders‘, featuring American President Theodore Roosevelt on horseback and his men behind.
Remington based this on a real-life war, the Battle of San Juan Hill. What’s striking about the painting is how it seems to move. Some men are getting shot, some are falling while others are charging ahead. There is so much happening and you can almost hear the war cries in the background!
That is exactly what Remington was talking about in the quote we showed at the beginning. The movement in the painting seems very lively, and that is because it is slightly more exaggerated than it would appear in a photograph. While most artists depicted galloping horses with legs pointing out, it was Remington who represented their movement correctly, after several years of study.
Who was Frederic Remington?
Frederic Remington was an American illustrator, painter and sculptor from New York. Remington’s work was focused on cowboys, Native Americans, soldiers and other scenes from western America. His work is believed to be among the most authentic representations of the great West, and he traveled there several times to study the people, animals and surroundings.
Since October is Remington’s birthday month, this is a good time as ever to learn about the talented artist as well as the American West, with some fun Frederic Remington art projects for kids!
10 Frederic Remington Art Projects for Kids
1. Remington Cowboy Collages
Frederic Remington wasn’t just any artist; he started out as an ‘artist-correspondent’, covering wars and earthquakes like a journalist. He then became known as the ‘soldier artist’ when he became popular with soldiers and was invited to make their portraits. Finally, he got to be known as a ‘historian-artist’, when he illustrated stories about Western life in the 1800s. Get inspired by this project from Frederic Remington to create your own western collage featuring cowboys and horses!
2. Chalk Landscapes on Colored Paper
Frederic Remington’s father was a Union army colonel and he often talked about the exciting things he saw in the West. Young Remington was enthralled by these stories and he fell in love with the American West. It was when he visited the place that he realized that it was a dying culture and that he needed to capture it in his art. Check out some fun Frederic Remington art projects from Meet the Masters to learn more about how Remington went about this task.
3. Frederic Remington Art Form Study
Remington’s most popular sculpture is ‘The Bronco Buster‘, a bronze statue of a cowboy trying to stay upright on a horse that is on its rear legs. The sculpture is incredibly realistic and anatomically accurate, and it was gifted to Roosevelt when he returned after winning the war. This sculpture also earned Remington the name ‘The Father of Cowboy Sculpture’. Create your own version of the Bronco with this tutorial from Kitchen Table Classroom.
4. Frederic Remington Color Study
Remington was very sincere and honest in his work. He wanted his paintings to be as authentic a representation of the American West as possible, so he took many photos and notes on all his visits there. He used colors as he observed them, a decision which was often criticized as ‘unnatural’. Learn more about Remington’s use of color effects with this lesson from Frederic Remington.
5.
This book by Mike Venezia is a great accompaniment to this list of Frederic Remington art projects. It is a good introduction to the artist’s life and his work, especially for kids above the age of 8. It features Remington’s paintings, illustrations, cartoons and sculptures, explaining them in detail. The book is also humorous in parts and makes for an enjoyable read.
6. Frederic Remington Art Lesson
Remington’s father wanted him to join the military, but he wasn’t interested. He started drawing and sketching in childhood; even making caricatures and cartoons of his classmates! He wanted to be a journalist, but when he fell upon hard times, he had to create art to pay for basics, and he soon realized it was what he wanted to do. Check out this project at 2 Soul Sisters that’ll inspire you to create your own sketch or drawing of a cowboy and his horse.
7. Remington’s Rattlesnake Craft
This fun craft from Frederic Remington is based on the sculpture called ‘The Rattlesnake’. It features a cowboy on a horse that is recoiling in fear, at the sight of a rattlesnake on the ground. It is a brilliant sculpture, capturing movement perfectly, and it has been described as Remington’s favorite sculpture. Have fun creating your own 3-D sculpture from a 2-D rattlesnake craft!
8. Remington-inspired Art
Remington started his career with illustrations, and he created over 2700 of them. After 1904, he decided to stop illustrating and focus on landscape painting. To make his point, he went ahead and created a bonfire – and burned dozens of his illustrations – worth a lot of money! Art Discovery brings us a project that teaches us how to create our own landscape, featuring the iconic Chimney Rock.
9. Frederic Remington Harper’s Weekly Magazine Page
Frederic Remington’s first full-page cover illustration appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1886 when he was just 25 years old, and there was no looking back. Most of his work has been in Collier’s and Harper’s Weekly, featuring Western themes. Take a tip from HiGASFY Productions and create your own Harper’s Weekly cover!
10. Frederic Remington Cowboy Boot Art
Although Frederic Remington was a New York boy, he traveled several times to the West, which changed his personality to that of a popular cowboy. Harper’s Weekly also used this in their promotional campaigns, cementing Remington’s image as a true blue cowboy, although he wasn’t! If you’d like to get a taste of being a cowboy, check out this cowboy boot drawing tutorial from HiGASFY Productions.
It is sad that Frederic Remington died young, at the age of 48, although he created a lot of prolific art in this short time. Two of his paintings were reproduced on US Postal Stamps, and the Post Office in Ogdensburg, New York was renamed the Frederic Remington Post Office Building. We hope that these Frederic Remington art projects will help us learn more about the artist and his work.
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