Artist: Winslow Homer

Transcription

1 Class Discussion 15 minutes POWERPOINT #1 Artist: Winslow Homer American ( ) In this lesson we are going to talk about a great American artist called Winslow Homer. He was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art. Also, using examples from Homer, we are going to discuss how artists plan their artwork and the use of lines and shapes. Artist: Winslow Homer American ( ) Third Grade Art Awareness Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He worked extensively in oil paints and watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific body of work, primarily chronicling his working vacations. As a composition is developed an artist may stress some elements of the design over others. The eye of the viewer will focus on the area of emphasis or center of interest first, and then take in the rest of the composition. Let s look at an example. POWERPOINT # 2 Fishing Off Scarborough, 1882 Size: 18.2 x 24.3 POWERPOINT # 3 During Homer s sojourn in England from 1881 to 1882, he rented a studio on a cliff overlooking Cullercoats Harbor, where he observed the comings and goings of fishing boats. This painting, called Fishing Off Scarborough, shows two young women and two fishermen in a coble as it slices through coastal waters. When you look at this picture, what is the first thing you notice? Boat, sail, people Fishing Off Scarborough served as the basis for Homer s 1883 watercolor called Returning Fishing Boats. The artist completed this painting after his return to New York from England. Here is the second painting Returning Fishing Boats, 1883 Size: 16.1 x 25 Gr3_Design_Lines09 1

2 POWERPOINT # 4 Comparing both images Fishing Off Scarborough, 1882 Returning Fishing Boats, 1883 What is alike in these two paintings? Different? Comparing the preparatory drawing Fishing Off Scarborough to the finished watercolor Returning Fishing Boats reveals that Homer replicated the central figure group and boat exactly. Such precise duplication would have only been possible with the use of a transfer process. Slight position shifts in the sail and rigging between the two works can be attributed to an accidental shifting of the artist s hand while tracing. Let s talk some more about lines and shapes in these two paintings and use a visual aid to help. POWERPOINT # 5 Straight lines. What does a vertical line look like? (get example). It goes up and down think vertebrae in the back). Vertical lines forming a shape in a picture give a feeling of strength and inaction. What does a horizontal line look like? (get example) This line goes across like the horizon. Too many straight lines can give a picture a sharp, cold, and impersonal look. Twisting lines. Sometimes artists make pictures with many twisting lines Rounded lines. Rounded lines are lines that are part of circles. Many rounded lines can give a feeling of softness and contentedness. Implied lines. This is a line that is not really there but your eye sees because it connects things One of the most important things an artist can do is make shapes with lines. Who can tell me what a shape is? Any time a line meets its tail you have a shape. Gr3_Design_Lines09 2

3 What shapes do you see in this room? Get examples. POWERPOINT # 6 Let s look again at the pictures again and get a couple of examples of lines or shapes What types of lines does the artist use? Vertical, horizontal, diagonal, etc. Fishing Off Scarborough, 1882 Returning Fishing Boats, 1883 What types of shapes did the artist use? Clouds, rounded lines, twisted lines, etc. Some artists will decide to arrange the shapes in their picture so there is no center of interest but there is an all-over design in which all parts are equally interesting. Let s look at an example from Winslow Homer. POWERPOINT # 7 Sunshine and Shadow, Prout s Neck, 1894 Size: 15.1 x 21.5 As its title implies, Sunshine and Shadow, Prout s Neck explores a specific effect of light on the sea. This watercolor is of the rocky Maine shore among the scrub and juniper bushes. How did Homer create the effect of the sun? He created the effect of the sun by leaving the bare white of the paper for the brightest areas of illumination. What types of lines do you see in this painting? Rounded lines, horizontal lines, twisted lines, etc. Gr3_Design_Lines09 3

4 Project 15 minutes Materials in PTO room: White construction paper Oil pastels Materials in classroom: Pencil Materials from Home: Various objects that you think they can use as a still life be creative! You need at least 3 objects. Activity Background for Parents: Give each child white paper and have them each create a still life drawing using oil pastels. When they have finished have them give their picture a title. Explanation to students: Today you are going to draw a still life picture. Does anyone know what a still life picture is? It is a picture of things that do not move. The subject of this activity is objects that you could set on a table--objects that were not alive. Will this be a center of interest drawing or an all-over design? Center of Interest. The assignment is to draw at least three objects. Use your pencil to lightly sketch your still life Next I am going to give you oil pastels to color your drawing. You can draw more if you wish. The objects have to be large and take up the entire space of the paper. Use the lines and shapes discussed in the lesson. Gr3_Design_Lines09 4

5 Artist Background: This is reference for presenter supportive material so you know more about the artist. Winslow Homer, American (February 24, 1836 September 29, 1910) Winslow Homer was a noted American artist during the 1800 s. He is remembered for his landscapes, particularly his scenes involving the sea. He was born in Boston on February 24th 1836 and grew up in the nearby village of Cambridge, a short walk from Harvard University. His mother was, was a skillful amateur watercolorist and he undoubtedly inherited her artistic talent. She encouraged him when as a child he showed an aptitude for drawing. Homer did not receive formal art training but instead apprenticed to a commercial lithographer. Homer disliked lithography and got work as an illustrator. During the Civil War he worked as an illustrator for Harper s Weekly. He was attached to the Army of the Potomac. His work from this time period became some of the most outstanding paintings of the Civil War. After the Civil War, he traveled and studied in Europe for several years. He returned to New York and settled for thirteen years in New York where his studio proximity to that of Eastman Johnson, genre painter, was a major influence. Many of Homer's early New York paintings were of leisurely figures in landscape, reflecting his time in France influenced by the Impressionists. During his time in New York, he explored his subject matter rural life, childhood remembrances including summers at Lake George, Saratoga Springs, and the Adirondack Mountains. In 1873, he began working in watercolor, and many of his most acclaimed works are in that medium. From 1881 to 1882, he was in England near Tynemounth on the rugged coast of the North Sea at the small fishing village of Cullercoats, and he began doing scenes, harsher in tone, of figures struggling heroically in landscape. There he worked almost exclusively in watercolor. This experience had a profound effect on his art and life, and he undertook the subject of the human struggle with nature that would occupy him for the rest of his career. Settling permanently in the seclusion of Prout's Neck, a remote area on the coast of Maine, he strove not only for solitude but for the closest approximation he could find in the United States to that same English coast. At Prout's Neck, he was able to indulge his love of the outdoors, his fascination with the moods of the weather and the people in the landscape. He traveled all over for seascapes, boating, and sporting scenes and also made several trips to Caribbean Sea locations including Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cuba, where he did a number of marine scenes ominous in tone. Homer never married and in his most productive years lived a highly secluded life, seemingly content according to his letters and family accounts. Gr3_Design_Lines09 5