O'Keefe Style Flowers with Butterflies

Students in grades 1-3 completed these brightly colored mixed-media artworks for spring. We began by learning about the artist Georgia O'Keefe and making a watercolor flower in her style. We looked at examples of many different flowers and students were free to create their own. I did require some type of texture lines in the petals and the flower had to touch every edge of the page. Students used a combination of regular liquid watercolors and fluorescents. During the next class, we learned about symmetry and created perfectly symmetrical butterflies. These were then painted symmetrically as well. For the final class, students cut out and glued the butterflies and also used oil pastels to blend the flowers and create some value. The end result is a beautiful painting perfect for the beginning of spring!