Poppies inspired by O'Keeffe and Remembrance Day

At this time of year in Canada, most everyone is wearing a small poppy on their jackets in honor of Remembrance Day.  This Wednesday Canadians will honor all of those who gave their lives for country, so it seemed appropriate to introduce an art project centered around this most important holiday.

Using chalk pastels and 14x17 paper, I handed the students a wide variety of reference material I had pulled on poppies.  We discussed Remembrance Day and I showed them a large book I have of all O'Keeffe's flowers. And although we were focusing on her flower work, I also made a point of letting them know she did much more than just flowers throughout her career.

I quickly showed them how interesting chalk pastel can be when you layer many colors and discussed the importance of paying attention to their color strokes in this project.

Then starting from the center of the flower and drawing outwards, they began to work.

7 year old getting started

Quickly they began to realize that there was not only one color of red in their flowers.  They began to notice all the small details within a simple poppy too.

11 year old

I encouraged them to shade with the complimentary color of red, instead of black, to make their work look more alive. I supported them as they courageously added strong white highlights...AND LEFT THEM instead of blending it into the work.

This is more frightening than it looks for kids.

7 year old

It's amazing when you ask kids to start from the middle of something and color as they go, instead of drawing the entire image first, how much more detail they begin to get in their work. This 7 year old was so happy with his piece as it was getting closer and closer to the edges of the paper.

9 year old

On the chalkboard wall I had written a quote by artist Paul Klee, "One eye sees, the other feels". The poppy holds such emotion for Canadians and the quote seemed appropriate as we were trying to capture this emotion in our work.  The kids were a bit befuddled by what it meant at first until a very sweet moment happened with the above artist.

He came to the studio ready to work humming.  And he hummed throughout the entire evening whatever notes came into his head. And then about 20 minutes into his drawing, his original musical composition began to take on a familiar tune.

"O Canada", the national anthem.

He was completely unaware he was even humming it, even when I pointed out he was humming "O Canada", he first denied it in his shock. Then smiled when he realized he indeed was singing the National Anthem as he emotionally connected with his work at hand.

Suddenly Klee's quote made sense.

I love moments like this with the students. They are magical and I always feel so lucky to be apart of them. 

The students loved their work when finished. One artist asked me to write down the paper measurements so she can find a frame for her work.  She plans to give it to someone for a present. What a lucky someone that will be!

We were a little dirtier than at the start of class, covered mostly in red, but a very happy bunch at the end of the evening.  There's something about drawing flowers that does the soul good. There's something about drawing poppies that lets the kids really remember the sacrifices made by many for this great country.

It was a good night.