Colour in Nature: Exploring Artistic Styles and Rainbows

 RAINBOW

"Twirling Rainbow" by Ryleigh

Last week the children investigated the colours of the rainbow with Deb and they were very eager to recall what they know today! The children used the 3 primary colours to mix secondary colours so that everyone had a palette with the colours of the rainbow. Sofia's request to make red led us to discuss how the 3 primary colours can't be made from other colours but other colours can be made from mixing primary colours.

After examining a photograph of a rainbow in nature we investigated how people use different artistic styles to represent rainbows. We looked at Impressionism, Cubism, Abstract, and Expressive Abstract.

"I'm painting Moobolist"

The children painted several pictures of rainbows and you can see from the photos that they are amazing! Ryleigh noticed that her painting was similar to Cubism and Billy developed a name for his own artistic style, he said, "I'm painting Moobolist"

Several of the children enjoyed giving their painting a name:
"Cross Dotted Amazed Rainbow" - Sofia
"Thunderstorm Rainbow" - William
"Twirling Rainbow" - Ryleigh

Colour in Nature: Artist Technique Comparison

Artist Technique Comparison:

Winslow and Gauguin

On Monday the children explored the works of Winslow Homer, an artist who enjoyed painting the outdoors. He used watercolours for perspective - to create the feeling that some things in the painting were far away while other things are closer and he used colours that are true to nature.  The children experimented with the technique of wet-on-wet watercolour, painting a grassy field with mountains and sky in the background, experiencing Homer's style.

On Tuesday the children explored the works of Paul Gauguin, another artist to enjoyed painting the outdoors. The difference is that Gauguin sometimes used unusual colours to represent nature. The children experienced this by painting the same landscape they did yesterday but choosing unusual colours. Except Bela, who chose to paint in the style of Winslow because "I like real life"

Landscape with water colours

Blue grass, purple mountains and green sky

I used a Venn Diagram to compare the two artists. They both died over a hundred years ago and Michael wanted to know how they died and we learned that Winslow died quietly in his home from old age and Gauguin died from taking too much medicine by accident.

Colour in Nature: Maple Leaves

All around us leaves are changing from green to vibrant colours, 

the colours inspire the creation of many beautiful paintings such as this one by Martha Zuasmer

 

The children examined maple leaves that had been collected from  outside and labelled the colours they saw: red, light red, dark red, black and orange.

Knowing how to mix paints to created desired colours is necessary if we want to reproduce the amazing colours we see in nature. The children helped mix paint and then used the paint to make leaf prints. 

Colour In Nature: What is Nature?

Last week while the children responded to my question "What colours do you see in nature?" it became clear they didn't have a good understanding of what nature is and isn't. Debbie continued this idea and observed that some of the children were generalizing that anything outside is nature.

The children and I worked at developing criteria for nature on Monday and they sorted through pictures classifying them as nature or not nature.  I heard a side conversation by Ryleigh and Sofia who were debating if Santa Clause was nature or not nature. Ryleigh thought Santa was nature. The debate was getting heated as Sofia tried to convince Ryleigh of her opinion and said in exasperation "Well does it grow on a tree??!!"

Today we fine-tuned the criteria and came up with  . . . 

It's nature if:

it comes from a plant
it's an animal
it comes from or is part of the earth

It's not nature if:

people have made it

The children took a camera outside and had an opportunity to take 2 photos: one of nature and one not nature. I put these pictures into a power point presentation and the children presented it to the others. Sadly I don't know if there's a way to attach the Power Point onto the blog!!