Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation
Episode number	Season 3, Episode 2 (#301)
Airdate	April 26, 1999 (US) August 7, 2000 (UK)
Written by	Michael T. Smith
Directed by	Nancy Keegan John Rowe (UK)
Question in the episode	What does Blue want to make for the art show?
Clues	A Pie Plate String Spoons
Answer to Blue's Clues	A wind chime
Chronology
Previous episode	Blue's Big Treasure Hunt (Broadcast/Credit Order) Mechanics! (Production Order)
Next episode	Weight and Balance
Update in or theme concept made into	Night at the Blueseum

Art Appreciation is the 2nd episode of Blue's Clues from Season 3.

Characters

• Blue
• Steve (North America)
• Kevin (United Kingdom)
• Duarte (Portugal)
• HyunShup Shin (South Korea)
• Sidetable Drawer
• Mailbox
• Mr. Salt
• Mrs. Pepper
• Paprika
• Tickety Tock
• Slippery Soap
• Shovel
• Pail
• Felt Friends
  • Phaderus
• Rain Girl (only appearance)
• Shape Boy (only appearance)
• Line Man (only appearance/uncredited)

Elements

• Question: What does Blue want to make for the art show?
• Clues:
  • 1. A Pie Plate (Pie Dish in the UK)
  • 2. String
  • 3. Spoons
• Answer: A wind chime
• Living room picture: A painting of the Blue's Clues House
• Skidoo location: An art museum in a book
• Felt Frame picture: Phaderus using the shapes
• Letter: Orange (US) Yellow (UK)

Summary

Steve and Blue make and check out some artistic pictures.

Recap

Steve and Blue are making some art for the art show. Steve makes a picture for the viewer but Blue wanted to makes something different. They play a game of Blue's Clues to figure it out. Steve goes to Sidetable Drawer who made a tassel. Steve gets his notebook. Then, he starts looking for those clues. The viewers spot a clue when Steve shows them the caterpillar. It was made out of an egg carton, pipe-cleaners, and had googly eyes. He is interrupted by the viewers and finds the first clue on the pie plate. After drawing the first clue, Steve checks out more paintings starting with Tickety who made a finger painting. In her finger painting, there was a fish. Steve checks on Slippery Soap next. In Slippery's painting, he also had a fish in his painting that had some green and blue. And third, Steve checks on Phaedrus who made a mosaic. Phaedrus' mosaic had a fish on it as well. Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, and Paprika were making a sculpture of their own. They tell Steve that they cannot see it until the art show. Soon after, Steve finds the second clue on the string. After drawing the second clue, Steve heads outside to see Shovel and Pail who made a clay sculpture of a dog. At first, the viewers thought the dog was sad but then again Shovel and Pail had a different answer. It was sniffing around looking for something. Steve asks Shovel and Pail what he was looking for. They tell him that their dog sculpture was looking for clues. Then it was Mail time. Mailbox did a painting on his side. Steve gets a real fancy letter. In the letter there were some kids at a museum. They admire the statue from the outside and gave their opinion on it. After reading the letter, three of the art characters fall out of the artbook. There was Rain Girl, Shape Boy, and Line Man. Blue leads the characters back into the artbook. Steve skidoos and realizes that he skidooed into an art museum. They begin by helping Rain Girl find her painting. The painting that the Rain Girl belonged in was called Umbrellas by Renoir. Steve helps Shape Boy find his painting. The painting he belonged in was called Oriental Promenade by Paul Klee. All is left was Line Man. They find his home called Waiting by Diana Ong. All the painted characters are back where they belong. Steve find the third clue on three spoons that were part of a sculpture. He draws the third clue and then skidoos home to the thinking chair to put all three clues together. The clues were a pie plate, a string, and spoons. Steve thought Blue would tie the spoons on one end and tie the other end to the pie plate and then the spoons hang over the pie plate and if the spoons bumped into themselves, it would make a pretty sound. Steve believes Blue is making a wind chime for the art show. After figuring out Blue's Clues, everybody gets together for the art show. Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, and Paprika have finished their artwork and is now going to unveil it. It was a food sculpture. It had celery for the head and neck, carrots for the arms and the leafy part of the carrots were used for the hands, peanuts for the feet, a semi-circle shaped tomato for the mouth, and a whole orange for the body. Soon after, Blue was finished making the wind chime and hangs it up on a tree branch. Steve sings the So Long Song and the episode ends.

Objects

• Notebook
• Feather

Gallery

From the UK Version.

Pie Plate

First clue

Pie Plate/Pie Dish

Second clue

String

From the UK Version

From the UK Version

This scene is from the 100th Episode Celebration

"Umbrellas" by Renoir is where Rain Girl belongs.

"Oriental Promenade" by Paul Klee is where Shape Boy belongs.

"Waiting" by Diana Ong is where Line Man belongs.

Third clue

Spoons

Nick Jr. Maisy Voiceover Audio Promo 3 (June 2000)

UK Version

Blue's Clues Art Appreciation Background

3 Clues from Art Appreciation

Watch Episode

This episode is available for streaming on Paramount Global's video streaming service Paramount+.

Trivia

• Audrey Anderson, Trixy S. Wattenbarger, and David B. Levy are all friends of Steve in this episode. Audrey is related to Dr. Dan Anderson, a content consultant (not this episode). Trixy is a senior animator, and David is an animator. Kenny Kim was also a friend of Steve in this episode, before he began voicing Periwinkle in Season 4.
• This is the second episode that is focusing on art.
  • The first time was in "Adventures in Art".
• This episode holds the record for the shortest credit sequence in the series.
  • On top of that, the credits for this episode were 24 seconds long.
    • Split-screen airings have longer credits.
      • This is the first episode where there are no character animations in the credits, except for the ball and Blue before the book closes, It is followed by Geography, Blue's Big Musical Movie, 100th Episode Celebration, and The Scavenger Hunt.
  • And since the credits was so short, nobody appeared in the end credits except for Blue with the ball when the book closes.
• This is the first time Steve is seen wearing his tan shoes.
  • He wears them again in later episodes.
• This is the first episode to show what the viewer looks like in Steve's point of view, using only art.
• This is the first appearance of Steve's permanent short hair. The previous episode, Mechanics, was the very last appearance of his longer hair.
  • However, in the extended version of the VHS version of Blue's Birthday, you can see his current style short hair when he is shown in the live-action living room during the cold opening.
• When the girl says "No a clue!", it sounds like she is frustrated.
• Steve asked the string (the second clue) to pose as he drew it in the notebook.
• Three pawprints were seen for the third clue.
  • This marks the last episode to feature a clue with more than one pawprint.
• The credits were too short to fit this episode, because the animation characters are absent.
• This episode's video letter takes place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the statue in the video is "Man in the Open Air" by Elie Nadelman.
• Joyce Raimondo, who appeared in the video letter served as the content consultant for this episode.
• In the UK version, the music clip from the closing credits is reused from Blue Is Frustrated.
• The voice of the Line Man from the painting called Waiting by Diane Ong was a guest performance by Ricky Gervais (who is uncredited).
• In the letter, the kids don't say, "Hi, Steve!", but instead, Joyce Raimondo says, "Hi, everybody!" before introducing herself.
• Before singing We Just Got a Letter, Steve says, "We just got a really fancy letter!".

Goofs

• After Steve draws the third and final clue down in the notebook, the pawprint is still seen on the spoons.
• In the VHS Version, after Steve uses his listening skills when trying to find the second clue, the "No, it's a clue" phrase line was re-used from "Math!" instead of the "No a clue" phrase line from "Hide and Seek".
• For unknown reasons, this episode continued to air on reruns from late 2015 through mid 2019 in 24fps, but not in 60fps as the other classic Blue's Clues episodes did.