Winslow Homer

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876

Winslow Homer (1836-1910)

American Painter

Activity: to create a collage seascape (inspired by a lesson from this blog, thanks!)

Materials: liquid watercolor, salt, sponge brushes, water, watercolor paper, blue construction paper, colored scrap paper or tissue paper, glue sticks or elmer's glue, scissors

Background: Winslow Homer was one of the famous American painters to come out of the 19th century. Homer is primarily known for his bold ocean paintings and also paintings inspired by scenes depicting an idyllic, rural America (children playing in schoolyards, women doing laundry). He began his career as an illustrator for magazines, and did many illustrations from the field of the Civil War. For quick background, here is the National Gallery of Art's feature on him - look at it! It's great: (click here); and here is the National Gallery of Art's "inside scoop" feature on him, specifically for children: (click here). I used this simple slideshow, which has a picture of "Breezing Up", an old photograph of Winslow Homer, and a link to the page of the NGA feature where you can pull up a pop-up window and watch a flash-cam short movie that was filmed from a bluff where he liked to paint - views of the rough ocean. (It's really neat but we couldn't get it to work in 1st grade. So maybe see if you can pre-send to the teacher and see if she/he can try it before the lesson?)

Discussion: In both classes I've taught this lesson in so far (1st and 2nd), the kids had a LOT to say about this painting and we had really fun discussions. I pulled up the image of Breezing Up, and started with our first discussion question - what do you see? The kids noticed tons: the clouds, the color of the sky, the waves, the color of the waves and which ocean it might be, the boats in the distance, the anchor on the front of the boat, the billowing sail. We talked about what these visual clues might be saying about the story Homer was trying to tell us (what kind of weather might it have been? Were the sailors happy? What was that big boat in the background doing?). After the kids had shared their ideas, we talked about how artists - in this case Homer - use pictures instead of words to communicate ideas and feelings. And how these kids can do the same with their art.

Project: 

Preparation - on all desks, put down a piece of watercolor paper and a sponge brush. Also, put a cup with a small amount of liquid watercolor (like 2 tablespoons), diluted with a splash of water (maybe like 2 tablespoons). I like to use the smallest size of paper dixie cups, stacked 2 deep so the paint doesn't bleed through or tip over when you put the brush in, because it makes clean up a lot easier. Fill the cups with an assortment of colors (we used purple, green, black sparkle, and blue sparkle). Mrs. Hill had the genius idea of putting out old manilla folders unfolded on every desk beneath the watercolor papers so now that is what I do when we paint - again, makes clean up so much easier. 

1. Have the kids fill their paper with color using the sponge brushes and liquid watercolors. They are not painting shapes, just doing layers of color. There should be no white showing when they are done. The kids can carefully switch paint colors with their neighbors so they can have a few colors on their paper. While it's wet, they or you can sprinkle salt on the wet paint and it makes a really cool texture on the surface (see samples below). Let the paper dry (this is when we had our discussion - after we'd done the painting). (If you have a helper, you can have them take away the paint while the kids are discussing, you won't need it anymore). 

2. pass out the colored paper scraps, and have them cut out simple boats (I drew something resembling a bowl-shape on the board as an example). Also have them cut out a sail(s) for their boat and a pole(s). 

3. Once the paper is kind of dry-ish (we discussed for about 8 minutes, and then made boats for another 5), demonstrate to them how to carefully tear up the watercolor paper into maybe 3 or 4 pieces. The pieces shouldn't look perfect, at all. 

3. Pass out the blue construction paper. Have the kids glue the torn pieces down on the blue paper however they want, to represent the ocean (the torn edges look a lot like waves).

4. Have the kids glue their boats on. Ahoy!