Famous Child Artists: 7 Masters Who Started Young (Plus Activities Your Kid Can Try)

Your child's latest masterpiece is a horse with seven legs, and Picasso would approve. Dalí would want to hear about the dream behind it. Some of the artists in this post were painting before they could read, and others didn't pick up a brush seriously until they were teenagers. Which kind is sitting at your kitchen table right now?

Meet seven famous artists who started young, plus three famous child artists who were noticed early, and try the activity for each of the seven at home this weekend.

7 Famous Artists for Kids to Learn About

Each of these artists began as a kid with something to say. Pick the one that sounds most like your child, or work through the list together.

1. Pablo Picasso (Spain, 1881 to 1973)

Picasso's father was an art teacher, and he gave his son brushes and space to paint before Pablo turned ten. By age eight, Pablo had painted "The Picador," one of his earliest surviving works. He kept going for the rest of his life, making roughly 20,000 works.

Try This at Home: Draw someone in your family using only geometric shapes, like in this Cubist portrait guide from Art Projects for Kids.

2. Georgia O'Keeffe (USA, 1887 to 1986)

O'Keeffe decided at twelve that she wanted to be an artist. She practiced constantly, studying the shapes of flowers, leaves, and other things in nature. That close looking shaped her whole career.

Try This at Home: Pick one flower or leaf and draw it big enough to fill the page, with every detail you can see.

3. Salvador Dalí (Spain, 1904 to 1989)

Dalí was dramatic and full of ideas from the start. His parents gave him a room at home to use as a studio, and around age six he painted "Landscape Near Figueras." Years later, he turned those wild ideas into Surrealism.

Try This at Home: Close your eyes and picture a dream, then draw it with no rules. The stranger, the better.

4. Frida Kahlo (Mexico, 1907 to 1954)

Kahlo thought of painting as a hobby until a bus accident at eighteen kept her in bed for months. Her mother had a special easel made so she could paint lying down, and at nineteen she finished "Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress." She later said, "I am the subject I know best."

Try This at Home: Make a "This Is Me" self-portrait surrounded by the pets, foods, and places your child loves most.

5. Jean-Michel Basquiat (USA, 1960 to 1988)

Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn, drawing cartoon-like sketches on scrap paper and cardboard. His mother took him to museums around New York, and a copy of Gray's Anatomy he was given as a boy shaped his drawing for years. As an adult, he told The New York Times Magazine in 1985, "I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day."

Try This at Home: Tear up some newspaper, then add paint and markers so the words and the pictures work together on one page. (If your little one is still in the scribble stage, here's why those early marks matter.)

If Basquiat's story resonates, we have more on encouraging creativity in young children and how early scribbles shape a creative life."

6. Yayoi Kusama (Japan, born 1929)

Kusama started drawing dots and repeating patterns as a young child, a way to make sense of an overwhelming world. Her family doubted that an artist's life was a good plan, and she kept going. Her shows now draw millions of visitors, many of them kids.

Try This at Home: Choose one simple shape, like a dot or a squiggle, and fill a page with it in different sizes, colors, and spacing. Art with Jenny K. has more infinity net ideas.

7. Kehinde Wiley (USA, born 1969)

Wiley grew up in South Central Los Angeles and took art classes at The Huntington, which he credits with changing his path. There he fell for the grand portraits of painters like Thomas Gainsborough. Decades later, he painted Barack Obama's official presidential portrait.

Try This at Home:: Draw yourself in a bold, confident pose in front of a bright patterned background, using this Kehinde Wiley project guide from Art Projects for Kids.

Give your kids' drawings a gallery-worthy display with an Artkive Kids Art Mosaic!

Famous Child Artists Who Were Noticed Early

Not every famous kid artist waited to grow up. These three were making news while they were still kids.

Wang Yani (China)

Wang Yani began painting at two and a half, and her work was exhibited in China when she was four. At eight, one of her paintings appeared on a postage stamp.

Alexandra Nechita (Romania and the United States)

Nechita was working with pen and ink at two and with watercolors by five. She had her first solo exhibition at eight, at a public library in Whittier, California.

Kieron Williamson (England)

Kieron Williamson started painting around age six. At seven, his first gallery show of 16 watercolors in Norfolk, England, reportedly sold out in 14 minutes.

Your child doesn't need a gallery show for their art to count. It's already worth keeping.

What to Do With the Art Your Child Makes This Week

Whether your child grows up to hang in a museum or just loves to draw, the artwork from this stage tells their story. A keepsake book from Artkive puts it all in one place. You send in the actual pieces, Artkive photographs each one and designs the pages, and you review a proof before anything prints. A book holds 25 to 350 images, and you get digital copies too. What happens to the originals is up to you, and our post on keeping or letting go of the originals can help you decide.

Here's how one Artkive parent, Dora Kotwal, described it:

Not sure where to start with the pile? Our guide to turning kids' art into a book walks through it step by step.

Questions Parents Ask About Famous Child Artists

Your Child's Story Is Still Being Drawn

Every artist on this list started with a drawing someone thought was worth a second look. Your child's story deserves to be told, too.