GEORGIA O'KEEFFE (1887-1986)
Georgia O'Keeffe, Red Poppy VI, 1928
Georgia O'Keeffe, Red Poppy VI, 1928
"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." -Georgia O'Keefe
Pronounced: Oh-Keef
Medium: Painting
Materials: real flowers, sharpies, watercolors, watercolor paper, cups of water, brushes
Pronounced: Oh-Keef
Medium: Painting
Materials: real flowers, sharpies, watercolors, watercolor paper, cups of water, brushes
Powerpoint: G. O'Keefe slideshow presentation is here.
Meet the Artist: Here is a link to a short biography of O'Keeffe. Another short article can be found here.
Discussion: Focusing on Poppies (1927) in the slideshow, ask the discussion questions: (1) What do you see? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?
Ideas that you may want to bring out through the discussion, depending on the age of the students: (1) reference the quote below the picture at the top of this lesson. How does looking at something closely make it yours for a moment? (2) Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings were often quite large. How does her decision to paint a flower large and close-up make the painting feel? Imagine if it were small instead - how would that be different?
Activity: I brought in a jar of flowers, sharpies, watercolor paper, and a couple of colors of liquid watercolors (I find that with kindergarten simple is really important. At least for me!) Before we started drawing, I gave each child a flower to touch, examine and smell. We talked about the color, shape, and texture of the petals; the center of the flower; the stem; how and where the colors were different. After spending a minute or two noticing, the kids drew their flower shape with a sharpie, and then added color. My main drawing instruction was to go as big as they could with their flower so they had lots of room to show all the details they noticed. I thought the pictures turned out great. (*In Kindergarten, I don't do the whole class all at once. I'm at one of the stations and they rotate through. We were able to complete this project in our allotted 15 minute time but older children should be able to do more detailed work with more time).
Tissue paper variation: (My favorite way of teaching this!) Supplies - watercolor paper, liquid starch (I bought a big bottle at WalMart in the laundry section for under $3), tissue paper cut into rectangles, scissors, shallow bowls, and sponge brushes. At the end of the discussion (above), ask the kids about the parts of the flowers they notice - the stamen, the petals, the stem. Talk about the different shapes that different kind of petals have. It might be useful to bring in a few different kind of flowers, if you have them on hand. Then have the kids use scissors to cut out lots of petal shapes, etc., from the tissue paper. Once their tissues are all cut, they can use the sponge brush to apply liquid starch to the watercolor paper (all over), and then place the tissue on the paper. Point out how nice it is to layer the tissue so the color has depth. Once the tissue is placed, they can do a final layer of starch to really seal the tissue on the paper. This was done by a second grader:
Tile Wall (Marker Only) Variation: Using the black marker or sharpie, have the kids draw a very large flower on their paper, then add color with the marker (see instructions for activity above about going BIG).
Student Work:
Discussion: Focusing on Poppies (1927) in the slideshow, ask the discussion questions: (1) What do you see? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?
Ideas that you may want to bring out through the discussion, depending on the age of the students: (1) reference the quote below the picture at the top of this lesson. How does looking at something closely make it yours for a moment? (2) Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings were often quite large. How does her decision to paint a flower large and close-up make the painting feel? Imagine if it were small instead - how would that be different?
Activity: I brought in a jar of flowers, sharpies, watercolor paper, and a couple of colors of liquid watercolors (I find that with kindergarten simple is really important. At least for me!) Before we started drawing, I gave each child a flower to touch, examine and smell. We talked about the color, shape, and texture of the petals; the center of the flower; the stem; how and where the colors were different. After spending a minute or two noticing, the kids drew their flower shape with a sharpie, and then added color. My main drawing instruction was to go as big as they could with their flower so they had lots of room to show all the details they noticed. I thought the pictures turned out great. (*In Kindergarten, I don't do the whole class all at once. I'm at one of the stations and they rotate through. We were able to complete this project in our allotted 15 minute time but older children should be able to do more detailed work with more time).
Tissue paper variation: (My favorite way of teaching this!) Supplies - watercolor paper, liquid starch (I bought a big bottle at WalMart in the laundry section for under $3), tissue paper cut into rectangles, scissors, shallow bowls, and sponge brushes. At the end of the discussion (above), ask the kids about the parts of the flowers they notice - the stamen, the petals, the stem. Talk about the different shapes that different kind of petals have. It might be useful to bring in a few different kind of flowers, if you have them on hand. Then have the kids use scissors to cut out lots of petal shapes, etc., from the tissue paper. Once their tissues are all cut, they can use the sponge brush to apply liquid starch to the watercolor paper (all over), and then place the tissue on the paper. Point out how nice it is to layer the tissue so the color has depth. Once the tissue is placed, they can do a final layer of starch to really seal the tissue on the paper. This was done by a second grader:
Tile Wall (Marker Only) Variation: Using the black marker or sharpie, have the kids draw a very large flower on their paper, then add color with the marker (see instructions for activity above about going BIG).
Student Work:
COOL i like the child drawings and o'keef's
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