Paul Klee, was a Swiss-German artist. He was one of the most famous painters of the 20th century and produced more than 9,000 works. He was born in Münchenbuchsee, a town near Bern in Switzerland in December 1879. Both his parents were musicians, so at the age of 7 Paul trained to be a violinist! At the age of 8 his grandmother gave him some chalk to paint. From that time it became apparent that he was talented in both music and art.

He decided to become an artist, so he studied at the Academy of fine Arts in Munich. An interesting fact about his work art is that he created many of his paintings at home on his kitchen table, which is why they are all relatively small. Klee loved experimenting and exploring colours and loved using colour to express how he felt or tell a story in his paintings. He was very interested in children art. Some of his paintings look like they were made by a child! Senecio is one of Paul Klee’s most iconic works of art. We were really pleased and happy when a boy of 9 sent us the Senecio he has made in his art class!

Klee’s three cats

Another interesting fact about Paul Klee is that he loved cats! That’s why cats are present in many of his works, photographs and letters. His first cat, Fritzi was a model for his works in the 1920’s. Then he had two more cats: he called them Bimbo I and after that he had Bimbo II. Perhaps his most iconic cat painting is “Cat and a bird”, he made in 1928. The cat is all head and the bird on his forehead indicates what he is thinking about. The heart on the cat’s nose symbolises his heart’s desire.

Watch a nice short video and learn how to draw the “Cat and a bird”. Then send it to The Virtual Kids Gallery -> send your art section!

Sources:
www.redtedart.com
kids.kiddle.co
www.thegreatcat.org
brainart.co