“From my teen’s on I had been told that I had crazy notions so I was accustomed to disagreement and went of with my idea.” –GeorgiaO’Keeffe

Artist: Georgia O’Keeffe (Rhymes with brief.)

Born: November 15, 1887, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

Died: March 6, 1986, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Why is this lady important?

  • She made art from the time she was nine until her death at age 98.
  • O’Keeffe was an accomplished artist by the age of 18.
  • She was a famous artist during a time period when almost all famous artists were men.
  • In 1923 one of O’Keeffe’s paintings sold for $400. It was the highest price paid that year for work done by a living American artist. This was only three years after women won the fight for the right to vote.
  • On December 11, 1924, at the age of 37, O’Keeffe married famous photographer and art gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz.
  • She made over 900 paintings in her lifetime, and began to learn about ceramics when she began to go blind in her 90’s.

“I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way- things that I had no words for.” –O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe painted….

  • Buildings in New York City
  • Abstractions of Natural Forms
  • Landscapes
  • Buildings Near Where She Lived

But she was most famous for….

  • Close-up Paintings of Flowers

She used oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints.

Your next project is going to be a watercolor project based on the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Today you will be thinking about O’Keeffe’s art.

“Jack in the Pulpit IV”, 1930. Oil on Canvas 40”x 30”

What do you think this is a painting of? ______

______

Calm / Powerful
Happy / Carefree
Peaceful / Excited
Anxious / Energetic
Angry / Sleepy

A Jack in the Pulpit is a type of flower. Here is a photo of one. Do you think O’Keeffe’s painting resembles this flower?

Water Color Techniques

Wash: A painting technique where large swatches of a surface (paper, canvas, etc.) are continually kept moist, while watered down paint is quickly spread over those surfaces. Washes, also be called wet into wet, are useful because they require only a small amount of paint that covers a large area.

Dry Brushing: A painting technique where the artist uses a brush loaded with heavy paint and drags it across a dry surface. This is useful for detail and texture work.

On the attached piece of paper, draw two frames in pencil.

Inside the first frame, create a one-color wash.

Inside the second frame, draw with paint the ram skull from behind O’Keeffe in the photo on the right.

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz

Stieglitz and O’Keeffe had a marriage different than most people of their time. After 1929 O’Keeffe lived in New Mexico every winter. She only lived with Stieglitz in their New York home in the summer. After Stieglitz’s death in 1946, O’Keeffe moved permanently to her winter home at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

Georgia O”Keeffe 1968

Rams Head with Hollyhock and Little Hills 1935

Notice the way the clouds behind the skull slowly gradate from dark blue to white. This is a great example of using washes, a.k.a. wet in wet.

The detail of the nose section of the skull is very detailed and probably done with by dry brushing.