painting the forest like Emily Carr

I could not do a camp focused on creating art inspired by the forest without sharing the art of Emily Carr. She spent her life in the rainforest of British Columbia changing the way citizens and artist view our beautiful forest forever.

We talked about how Emily Carr would spend the summers in the woods creating sketches and paintings on paper where she thinned her paints with gasoline and then during the winter months take those sketches to create her famous paintings.

Then like Emily Carr we headed to the woods, some of the very same woods she actually painted in almost a hundred years ago! Each child had some manila paper, charcoal and graphite to create a sketch of something in the woods that left them saying "wow".

We then pretended winter had come and headed back to the studio to create acrylic paintings of our sketches, just like Emily Carr.

Before beginning the paintings, we looked at some of the sketches and paintings Emily Carr had created and discussed whether or not the painting was exactly like the sketch. As they discovered she had in fact made artist choices on what she added or subtracted from her sketches, I encouraged each young artist to do the same. 

We also talked about abstraction and how Emily Carr abstracted her forest paintings in what was a new and modern way when she was painting. I also told them how many people did not like her new modern way of painting but she stayed true to her self and her instincts and painted that way anyway.

The campers discussed how she abstracted the shapes, color, and line to create her beautiful artworks. We talked about how they too might decide to abstract their paintings of the forest.

I also shared with them some things about trees that never change....like how a tree always divides to create a "y" and that a tree will always be thicker at the bottom and skinnier at the top.

The young artist so enjoy sketching in the woods. You can see why Emily Carr loved spending time doing the same while watching the children sit and get lost drawing amongst the trees.

It truly is one of my very favorite thing to do with children. You can't complain when spending a day sitting in the woods creating art.

And I love the variety of work created by the young artist and my own discovery of what "wow'd" them.

All I know is that I am completely in awe of each and every work these young artist created while being inspired by British Columbia's own Emily Carr.