2nd Grade - Wang Yani Monkeys

The 2nd grade students learned about the artist Wang Yani through a PowerPoint. Wang Yani was from China and became an artist at a very young age. Her father was a painter and an art teacher so he was able to help her. She held her first exhibition when she was only 4 years old! By the time she was 6 years old she had created over 4,000 paintings! When she was 8 years old one of her paintings was made into a Chinese Stamp. Yani’s favorite subjects in her early paintings were animals, especially cats and monkeys. She paints these animals playing and being mischievous. Yani’s later work portrays landscapes and people, and many of her paintings tell a story. She often uses her art as a way to communicate. The 2nd grade students were able to see many examples of Yani’s work and then were able to create their own monkey scene using water colors.