Art History Lessons and Crafts for Kids: Abstract Expressionism and Alice Baber

The Education & Outreach Program Interns at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB, have designed lessons and crafts for aspiring artists and historians, from nine to ninety-two!

This lesson (taught by EOP Interns Sarah Patton, Callan Nowacki, and Shaye Miller) explores different materials used to create art, with an in-depth look at watercolor and Abstract Expressionism. An artistic movement of the mid-20th century, Abstract Expressionism conveyed artists’ emotions and ideas through shapes, color, and nonrepresentational forms. We learn about feminist artist and abstract expressionist painter Alice Baber, whose watercolor pictured below is in the AD&A Museum collection. We invite you to enjoy the art history lesson, partake in the step-by-step craft instructions on how to make an abstract watercolor, and channel your inner feelings just as abstract expressionists did.

Click on the image to begin the lesson

Image: Alice Baber (b. United States, 1928-1982), Green Journey, 1969. Watercolor, 30 1/4 x 22 1/2 in. Gift of Alice Baber. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; UC Santa Barbara.