Folk art is art produced from indigenous cultures and by peasants, laborers and trades people. Folk art is primarily utilitarian, decorative and can include such media as cloth, wood, paper, clay and metal.
Folk Artists tend to reflect the traditional art forms used within their personal environment be it ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational or based upon their geographical location.
The art skills may be learned through modeling the artwork of their peers, apprenticeships or through formal education.
Paper folk art web site provides fairly accurate, black and white, artist renditions or illustrations of historic peasant and folk art designs as well as whimsical of our own creation for young children to print and color. Parents and teachers may use these images for creating lesson plans and other educational purposes.
The historic examples of traditional folk art and peasant art images in Paper Folk Art web site are based upon common public domain images and items currently on display in public museums and in historical reference material such as the Project Gutenberg. These images are artist renditions however, and are definitely not identical copies, scientifically, historically accurate or drawn to scale representations.
Purpose of this site is to provide a brief introduction to folk art and peasant art craft activities for children (young and old) in the hopes of piquing interest for further investigation into the fascinating history of self-taught artists.
