Blooming Into Spring

In Art Methods class, we created oil pastel flowers after learning about the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. Various examples of her flower paintings were shown, and her use of line and color were emphasized.  I started with a 9" X 9" sheet of heavy white paper. Oil pastels were used to draw and color a flower that took up the whole paper. Crayons could have been used as well. It was important to use pressure on the pastels to ensure there were no white spaces so that the pastels would resist the paint. After the flower was colored in, I painted over the entire paper with watered-down black tempera paint. Immediately after applying the paint, I used a paper towel to wipe off the flower. Most of the paint came off of the oil pastel, but it stayed on the white paper. It works better to start from the center of the flower and wipe it off in the direction of the petals. I wanted some white to remain in my flower, so I used a white oil pastel.

An extension activity for this project would be to study flowers and other plants in science. Students could each plant a flower to be kept in the classroom near a window. They could water them every day and measure growth. The parts of a plant (roots, leaves, stems) could be learned, and in older grades, students could learn about plant cells and create their own clay model of a plant cell.