Grandma Moses Landscapes -- 2nd Grade

The goals for this project are to

• Classify artworks as landscape, still-life or portrait.

• Identify and use foreground, middle ground, and background in two-dimensional works of art.

• Use size relationships and simple depth techniques to show space in an artwork.

We learned about the artist Grandma Moses and created a winter collage using various materials.  We read a couple books about Grandma Moses and looked at her artwork.

These are two books about Grandma Moses which are great for this project:












Grandma Moses (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

Steps:  Day One-- I teach this as a step by step project so the kids don't get confused.

1.  Cut a mountain range from gray paper.  Tear a white piece of paper for the snowy ground.  Glue to a blue background.

2.  Draw and cut out houses.  Small houses go in the background, medium sized houses in the middle, largest houses in the foreground to create the illusion of depth.  Draw details on the houses with crayons.

Day Two:  Add more details with crayons:  animals, people playing in the snow, river or road (showing depth by going back into space), etc.

Day Three:  Paint trees and white snow with watercolor paints.  Finish up any remaining details.