Kids Art Project: Georgia Okeefe through a Child's Eyes

Max and I signed up for one of the really fantastic workshops today, that they hold every month at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York through the Spring and Fall/Winter season. Max's instructor was Rachelle and we found ourselves with a group other 2nd graders, boys and girls. Rachelle, a museum assistant in the education dept, sat on the floor of the very busy Georgia O'Keefe show (it closes January 17th and has gotten rave reviews) this afternoon and she spoke with the children about what one thinks about when one sits down to make art. She asked them to think about what decisions does one make. We walked through the show and sat on the floor in one of the galleries. Looking at O'Keefe's paintings, Rachelle focused on one group of three paintings that the artist created in Lake George. She focused on a simple composition of a shell and a piece of shingle sitting on her bureau in her bedroom. A simple grouping but in each of the three paintings, O'Keefe interpreted the imagery looser and more abstract. The one of the far left was quite realistically rendered with a large shell in the foreground and a grey shingle leaning against the wall, while the painting on the far right was reduced to some very basic shapes. Rachelle, through questions and talk, led the children to make this discovery. Then the group of children moved into another gallery, and we all sat in front of three versions of OKeefe's Jack-in-a-Pulpit painting (left was a painting in the show "Jack in the Pulpit" 1930 on loan from the National Gallery of Art, DC). Here the children analyzed how Georgia, zoomed in on a particular flower, and that in each painting, from left to right, the imagery became more abstract as she focused in on it.

From the www.mystudios.co website I learnt "O'Keeffe had been fascinated by the microcosm of a flower ever since her schooldays in Madison, where her art teacher had brought a jack-in-the-pulpit into the classroom for the pupils to study." Rachelle (right in dark sweater) then handed out small black and white xeroxes of one of the Jack-in-the-pulpit paintings and a piece of blank paper, as well as a bag of colored pencils to each child. She asked them to place the small image of the painting anywhere on the piece of paper, and then creatively expand on the drawing, creating whatever environemnt around it they wanted to. To "branch out", so to speak, with their colored pencils and put that image into a larger environment.

All of the children's drawings were very different, from very involved environments to more abstract and minimal marks. Visitors wandering through the show stopped to watch the kids at work.

Then we all went down to the studio room, so the children could work on the big art project of the day, related to everything the children had seen and learnt. Rachelle explained that she wanted the children to choose one of the interesting photographic images from nature, from the piles of images placed on each of the large tables, then use the view finder to find a section/piece of it that they would work with. Next she asked them first to sketch this section out with pencil on white paper. Once they had done that, she passed out beautiful heavy watercolor paer, pastels and water soluble pastels for the children to work with. And they all, very enthusiastically, got busy!