Georgia O'Keeffe Flowers

I have always done this project with my second graders and I have had much success with it. It's a great art history lesson and really starts to get the kids to think about color theory. What works, what doesn't work. I am very lucky to have a SmartBoard in my classroom and I do have this lesson on SmartBoard form if interested. In furture posts, I will talk more about the SmartBoard and how it can change your way of teaching forever. It's time everyone gets into the 21st century and having a SmartBoard is a great way to do it.

Materials:
*9x12 White drawing paper
*Pencils
*Sharpies
*Oil Pastels- I have tried many brands of oil pastels and the one that works and blends the best is crayola.
* Watercolor Paint- warm and cool colors

The students will study Georgia O'Keeffe and understand how she broke down the barrier for women artists. She was popular for her large abstract flower paintings and this will be the focus of our project. I usually have an introduction on the SmartBoard for the start of a new lesson. It has information about the artists, pictures, and goals for my students.

We will draw the flower starting in the center and build our way out layer by layer with the max. of 5 layers (4 layer min.). The layers will be drawn with various lines. This will incorporate math as each layer becomes part of a radial design. See example below:



Once outlined with Sharpie we will study color theory and pick colors to start coloring the flower. I encourage the students to try to pick different colors for each layer. **Start in center and move outward advoid mixing contrasting colors.

Watercolor paint will be used to fill in the negative space. If the student colored their flower with mostly warm colors then the watercolor will be with cool colors (vice versa) just so there is some sort of contrast there.