Stuck at home? Find art inspiration around you!

There’s no need for artmaking to stop if you’re not at the NCMA! Be inspired by the Museum’s collection, and use these quick tips to get creative with materials you may already have in a closet, junk drawer, or recycling bin.

Mosaic depicts flowers, knots, and geometric patterns in stone and glass tiles. Create your own mosaic collage out of paper scraps. Cut magazine pages, newspapers, or even old pieces of mail into tiny pieces. Then arrange your paper tiles into shapes and patterns on a larger piece of paper, and use glue to adhere them. What patterns can you create?

Try a continuous line drawing on paper with a pen, pencil, or marker. Have a friend or loved one pose for you, or look at a picture of a sculpture at the Museum, like The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. Then use your drawing utensil to capture your subject’s pose in one line from start to finish. Try to complete your drawing without lifting your pen or pencil off the paper! Think about choices you can make to show the outline of the pose, shading, and other delicate details.

Make a colorful and symmetrical arrangement of objects you find around the house. Take inspiration from Minnie Evans’s drawing The Tree of Life to create a composition that includes natural and manmade materials on a flat surface. See if you can find objects with different colors or textures, or perhaps include leaves, sticks, or other materials you can gather from the outdoors. Can you create balance in your display?