American Landscape Paintings--3rd/4th Grade

 American Landscapes  The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion.  The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes.  One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting.  The students chose a landscape scene from pictures of America.  Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain.

I showed them my painting of a rolling hills landscape and demonstrated how I created those textures through sponges, fan brushes and using the edges of a flat brush.  

Paintings from my watercolor class

I've been taking a watercolor class this summer, which has been very useful in learning new techniques and basically how to approach painting.  Here are a few paintings that I made this summer:

I think it will be useful especially when I teach the lesson about American Landscapes.

Third/Fourth grade Landscapes

 American Landscapes  The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion.  The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes.  One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting.  The students chose a landscape scene from Wisconsin or a state they have visited.   Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain.

Oil Pastel Landscapes-- 2nd grade

Oil Pastel Landscapes

By the Upper Primaries

This project focused on learning about foreground, middle ground, background, shadows, and color mixing.  The students learned simple depth techniques.  The Upper Primaries used oil pastels to draw a tropical landscape.  They learned how to mix and blend oil pastels to create rich colors.  Paul Gauguin was studied and in particular, the students explored his painting Tahitian Landscape.

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.