Artist: Georgia O'Keefe Oversize Flower


Georgia O'Keefe (1887 – 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia 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 had a long and varied career but is mostly famous for her over sized flower and bone paintings.

When asked about why she painted flowers 10 to 100 larger than in real life she responded "A flower is relatively small. Nobody sees a flower - really - its so small - we haven't time. So I said to myself - I'll paint  what I see - what it is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it"

I was fortunate to see a wonderful exhibit of her Flower paintings a few years back at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I have never looked at a flower the same way again.

Materials: heavy weight sketching paper, or watercolor paper, sketching pencil, watercolor pencils or watercolor paint.
Inspiration is "Flower on Red Earth No. 1" 1943
Step #1: Draw very light pencil guidelines down the center of the paper and across the middle. Start with a small circle in the middle.
Step #2: Draw the petals starting from the center circle and have them overlap as shown. Make sure a least one petal goes off the page.

Step #3: Draw tiny circles around the center circle and add the filament and anther coming out of the center of the flower.

Step #4: Draw leaves behind the petals and add your own details.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Artist: Paul Klee - Cat and Bird

Image
One of my favorite artist is Paul Klee, his work is simple and complicated at same time. Paul Klee was a Swiss artist and teacher from the early 1900's who liked to turn things he saw into simple geometric shapes. His "Cat and Bird” painting from 1928 is a classic example of his philosophy. Klee grew up in a musical family and was himself a violinist. After much hesitation he chose to study art, not music, and he attended the Munich Academy in 1900. Klee loved to use continuous lines in his work, the cat's head and the bird were drawn with one continuous line . Our lesson experiments with both geometric shapes and color. Materials: Your choice of materials, we have used the "Cat and Bird" for acrylic painting, watercolor painting. oil pastel, chalk pastel and pencil. Step #1: Draw a border around the paper. Draw light guidelines down the center and across the middle. Draw a large "W" type shape for cats head. Step #2: Draw the cats eyes and snout
Read more

Artist: Van Gogh Sunflowers

Image
Vincent Van Gogh (1853- 1890) was son of a Dutch pastor in The Netherlands. He was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art . Most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years in Arles France. He painted several studies of the Sunflowers as a deliberate experiment in color. Our project uses one of Van Gogh Sunflower still life to work on the elements of composition and color. Materials: I have used acrylic paint, oil pastel, watercolor paint, watercolor pencil and chalk pastel for this project. I like to have the students be like Van Gogh and try the project several times and then look at the results. Step #1: Draw the bottom of your flower vase. Dr
Read more

Artist: Henri Rousseau - Surprised! Storm in the Forest

Image
One of the best animal artists for kids is Henri Rousseau. Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) was a French artist did not start painting until he was in his 40’s. Ridiculed during his life, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. He tried to paint in the schooled manner of the traditional artists, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of many avant-garde artists such as Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. Rousseau's loving attention to detail that made him an exceptional artist. We use Rousseau “Surprised, storm in the forest” as the inspiration for our lesson. We want the tiger's head to look like he is through the leaves. This lesson focuses on color and space. Materials: Sketching pencil, heavy weight drawing paper, sharpie. Finish with your choice of watercolor pencils, oil pastels or pastel chalk. Step #1: Draw light guidelines with a sketching pencil. Draw a large circle for the head. Step
Read more