The Artist's Vision

Prehistoric Artists

In this lesson the student will: Analyze a Lascaux cave painting and discuss the ways in which cave paintings represent prehistoric times; Learn about prehistoric art and cave paintings; Identify the use of line, color, shape, texture, and space used in cave paintings and as seen in real scenes of animals; Sketch animals using basic shapes; Draw the contours of prehistoric animals on a paper “cave wall”; Paint and shade animals in the manner of the cave artists, using powdered, chalk-like natural pigments.

Paul Klee

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Klee’s Head of a Man and compare realistic and abstract facial features; Identify the use of line, color, shape, texture, and space in the painting; Find the geometric shapes and symmetry used to build the abstract head; Discuss how color creates mood; Describe how Klee showed expression and try to identify these expressions; Sketch faces in proportion; Create paper collage portraits, using cutting-and-folding techniques to add detail and depth.

Li T'ang

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Li T’ang’s painting Old Man and Child on Buffalo and compare the Chinese style of painting with Western styles; Discuss the way repetition and balance occur in nature and how they are shown in Li T’ang’s painting; Identify various tones of black, from light to dark; Find the foreground, middle ground, background, and horizon line; Sketch trees and branches; Paint trees in the Chinese style, using twigs dipped in different tones of black paint.

Nellie Mae Rowe

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Nellie Mae Rowe’s painting Stormey Weather and learn about her Folk Art style; Identify organic and geometric shapes, patterns, and curving lines; Find contrasting warm and cool colors; Sketch bugs and small animals and draw patterns in and around writings of their names; Use oil pastels to create compositions with lively moods.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Kirchner’s Hockey Players and his techniques for showing action; Identify diagonal lines that show action; Discuss how overlap shows distance; Describe the attributes of the painting and how they help tell the story; Sketch figures in action poses; Paint figures in motion on a textured tempera background.

Vincent van Gogh

In this lesson the student will: Analyze van Gogh’s Self Portrait and discuss the expressive lines and bright colors that are typical of his style; Identify the use of line, color, shape, texture, and space in the portrait; Learn how van Gogh used art to express his emotions; Sketch faces using basic proportions; Fingerpaint portraits of heroes or people who are admirable, using expressive lines and colors to show personality and create moods.

Currier & Ives

In this lesson the student will: Analyze the Currier & Ives landscape painting Across the Continent and learn how they used lithography to capture the American way of life; Identify the vanishing point and the artists’ techniques for showing distance; Describe the story told in this painting; Sketch landscapes with vanishing points; Create monoprint landscapes showing depth.

Peter Paul Rubens

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Ruben’s Portrait of Nicolas and discuss his techniques for creating a rounded form on a flat shape; Identify the correct placement of facial features; Describe the character of the boy, using clues in the drawing; Practice sketching faces in proportion; Create expressive facial features using clay tools, Sculpt clay portraits using additive and subtractive clay techniques.

Paul Cezanne

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Cezanne’s Still Life and the composition of fruits and objects; Identify use of line, color, shape, textures, and space in the painting; Learn about Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist style and his desire to show form; Sketch fruits and vegetables, using basic shapes and observing details; Color fruits in primary and secondary colors, using oil pastels and using highlights and shadows to show form; Arrange still lifes in balanced compositions, using cut-out vegetables and fruits.

El Greco

In this lesson the student will: Analyze El Greco’s landscape View of Toledo and the mood created by color and line; Describe how El Greco showed the illusion of distance, using the relative size and placement of objects in the foreground, middle ground, and background; Sketch landscapes showing distance; Draw landscapes and use color expressively to show mood; Create chalk pastel landscapes, using color and line to give unity to their compositions.

Pablo Picasso

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Picasso’s Three Musicians and discuss his use of abstraction and geometric shapes in creating a balanced composition; Identify the use of line, color, shape, texture, and space in the painting; Learn about Picasso and his style, called Cubism; Sketch figures in proportion; Cut geometric shapes to make figures; Create lively cubist collages of musicians and instruments in balanced compositions.

Wassily Kandinsky

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Kandinsky’s Color Study and learn about the non-objective style that Kandinsky called Abstraction; Identify the use of line, color, and shape used in the painting; Learn painting techniques; Draw concentric circles; Mix primary colors to make secondary colors; Paint non-objective compositions with concentric circles in varying color combinations.