Wednesday, January 22, 2014

3rd Grade Grant Wood Landscapes






 
The 3rd grade students learned about the artist Grant Wood.  He was born in a small town in Iowa and was born and raised on a farm.  Grant Wood loved living on the farm and had many pets such as chickens, goats, ducks and turkeys.  When Grant was 10 years old his father past away.  He had to move into the city because his mom was unable to keep up the farm on her own.  Grant did not like the city because he felt out of place and was made fun of because he did not dress like the other kids did.   Grant was an excellent artist from an early age on and he did many things revolving around art.  He taught art, made jewelry, learned carpentry, and also decorated people’s houses.  When he joined the army during WWI his job was to paint camouflage on the tanks and canons.  Most of Grant Wood’s paintings were of farmlands because that was a huge part of his childhood.  People loved his work because they could relate to his paintings, and they were very peaceful and calming.  Grant’s most famous painting is American Gothic.  The people in this painting were actually not farmers; they were his sister and his family dentist!  The 3rd grade students learned what a landscape is.  They learned that a landscape has foreground, middle ground, background and a horizon line.  By having these elements it creates depth or distance in a painting.

2 comments:

  1. I was hoping to do this porject with the 3rd grade class I visit for my Teaching Art Class (I'm in college.) The issue is that the master teacher says she doesn't have water colors. It's a school in the run-down parts of San Deigo and they have limited art supplies. I totally scrapped the project and instead last week we designed a state quarter for the state we live in.
    I have one more art lesson to teach this week on Grant Wood. Any suggestions?

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  2. I think this project turned out well for your students. I like that you were able to introduce depth in their art. And some of the pieces even show a little personality of the young artists as well. :-)

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