Monday Art Club: Hokusai

We looked at Japan's most famous painter and printer, Hokusai. After finding Japan on the globe - lots of talk about earthquakes and tsunamis - we looked at some of Hokusai's work. The kids were interested in the fact that Hokusai had drawn every day since he was a child. He described himself as 'an old man crazy about drawing'. We talked about how important nature is in Japanese culture and how Hokusai often painted the sea. We created our own Great Wave with Mount Fuji in the background, using cold colours for the waves and warm colours for the sky and the especially fun bit was flicking the sea spray onto the paper with toothbrushes. One little girl decided to paint her face!