The Earth as Art

This week, we talked about environmental art and eco-art, and how nature influences artists and their work.  I showed a powerpoint presentation to the class to cover how different artists portray the environment in their work.  Some artists simply choose to show the beauty of nature in their work.  Others are more activist/conservation based.  (We will talk further about the conservation based art as we get towards Earth Day in the spring.) 

Within the powerpoint, were photographs from the United States Geological Survey(USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS) satellite image gallery.  For our next project, students will choose one of these photographic images to explore watercolor techniques and produce their own environmental artwork.  We also talked about four different basic types of watercolor techniques including flat wash, gradient wash, wet on wet, and dry brush.  Students got to try out professional grade watercolor paint, that comes in tubes instead of palettes, which results in highly pigmented colors and offers more versatility in mixing paints.  

Next week, we'll start drawing our compositions for our environmental art paintings.  See you then!