Oil Pastel Close-Ups (...and Awesome Posters!)

For high school 2D art, students were instructed to create an up-close "painting" using oil pastels. This project was inspired by the work of Georgia O'Keeffe -- an American artist famous for close-up paintings of flowers. Here are a few close ups of close ups(!), followed by a group shot of everyone's on display. Great craftsmanship, effort, and creativity, everyone!!

 

 

Also, I've been making these posters of amazing things students say about what they learned. I'm hanging them all over the school! All these students are so great (and smart! and intuitive!)!

 

7th Grade Chalk Pastel Close-Ups

In seventh grade art we learned about the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. O'Keeffe was an American painter who specialized in close-up paintings of nature (mostly flowers). Here are some examples of her work:

 

We discussed O'Keeffe's process of "selection, elimination, and emphasis." The students decided this meant that it is okay to eliminate some things from your composition, and select/emphasize other parts for dramatic effect. They worked on this in their own chalk pastel close-ups. Students did not need to do a flower -- they could do anything as long as it was close-up and required blending. Check them out!