Love of Winter

"Love of Winter"
George Bellows 1914

4th graders learned about using warm and cool colors to draw the viewers attention to a subject during an Art Talk based on George Bellow's Love of Winter. George Bellows was an American painter who portrayed every day life in the city in his urban scenes. Love of Winter shows ice skaters in Central Park enjoying a winter day. The main subjects in his painting (his wife and daughter) are painted in warm colors against the cool colors of the snow covered background hills. Students noticed how Bellows showed motion by slanting all of the background skaters to the left while the subjects in the foreground remained perpendicular to the horizon. After a brief discussion, students were asked to paint a scene from their own favorite season contrasting warm and cool colors and showing movement. Feedback to students during the lesson included paying attention to their horizon line (where the sky meets the land) and using the full piece of paper, and choosing the size of your paint brush carefully when painting details. One class used oil pastels and learned about smudging to blend and show shadows or movement. Here are pictures of some of the "works in progress".

Student shows movement by leaning subject to the left, used warm color on subject to contrast against the cool colors