These were done on large pieces of watercolor paper using pen and liquid watercolors. The artist created all their own colors using only primary colors.
I pulled down a large book filled with all of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers and discussed with them that she created these large scale paintings in order to have the viewer notice in flowers the things she saw in them too.
That in essence what she did was make people really stop and notice more than, just as an example, a red flower, but all the other interesting and beautiful components in that red flower.
And now they would have the opportunity to pick something from their hike that people probably don't take much time to notice and make the viewer see the natural element they chose they way they see it as artist.
Simple messages, like a rock isn't just a rock. There is all these other beautiful colors you can find if you take the time to look.
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And something as ordinary as a bit of moss has the most interesting flowing lines.
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Another student was so taken with what the above artist was creating, she too was inspired to create a very similar piece.
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Another child was smitten with a bit of hydrangea collected in the area of the forest where we had all stopped to watch the moth flutter among the sunlight, trees, and purple flowers.
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Several students chose leaves to study for their paintings and yet their visions were all very unique, just like them.
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And one child decided to focus on the sculptural shapes of a simple pinecone.
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And a couple of others picked up various pine leaves to create paintings from and each saw something very different in their paintings.
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And then there was this seed pod, that took on a life of it's own during the course of the project.
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And finally a student who was very concerned with her pet gecko that day. She thought it was egg bound and might die, so she brought with her a decorated box of small treasures that reminded her of her pet while she was at class. Her way of coping with her worry and bringing her peace. She asked if it was OK if she picked something from her box to show in her painting, something very beautiful to her that she wanted all of us to see.
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This is a small bit of shedding from her pet. I fully supported her desire to paint this piece because if the worse happened, she would have this painting to remember her special pet. Thankfully the gecko was fine, not egg bound, just claustrophobic or something. She was so happy the next morning when she arrived at class to tell me the good news.
It was quite interesting to see each child's perspective on a simple item collected from our hike. I was so impressed with each one of their works. They all quite enjoyed the process of working with watercolor and got quite lost in their work, which just made my whole day.
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