It’s rainy and cold here in San Diego, and it was gusting 50 mph winds just a minute ago. Thankfully it’s not like this very often, and we are severely in need of the extra water! That being said, what better thing to do on a rainy day than MAKE ART!?!
One of my FAVORITE projects to do with kids is flower paintings, inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s work. I’m going to go over doing the painting with crayon (wax) resist and watercolor for 1st- 5th graders, but it could also be done in acrylics or tempera for older students.
Materials:
Large 16 x 20 white paper of a heavier stock- watercolor preferably but something at least 70#
Watercolor paint
Watercolor brush
Crayons
Image of one of Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers
Silk flower OR image of a flower
Bio of Georgia O’Keefe (taken from Wikipedia)
Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O’Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes in which she synthesized abstraction and representation. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors. She often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract images.
O’Keeffe played a central role in bringing an American art style to Europe at a time when the majority of influence flowed in the opposite direction. This feat enhanced her art-historical importance given that she was one of few women to have gained entry to this level of professional influence. She found artistic inspiration in the rural Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, where she settled late in life.
Image: “Red Poppy”, Oil on canvas, 1927, Georgia O’Keefe
Process:
1. Discuss the artwork with the student(s). Remember what was discussed previously- “What is this an image of? What makes you say that? What else do you see?” Talk about how the subject matter is a flower, and that the artist chose to ENLARGE an area of the flower for their artwork to make something appear different then how it appears, and use an unusual point of view.
2. Instruct the student that they are going to do a large drawing in crayon of a small part of the flower (either silk or photograph) and ENLARGE that part onto their drawing area, and then go over it in watercolor.
3. First demonstrate what they are doing, making sure that they do not completely shade in all the areas where the watercolor will go- the point is to have space left for the watercolor. What will happen is that where ever the crayon is on the page, the watercolor will not leave paint on- it forms a resist.
4. Have the student do the work, first using crayon then watercolor.
