Monochromatic Abstracted Flower Art with Ms Reyes at CAHTS

Biology, Technology and Art

An exciting STEAM art project has been in process for several weeks in Ms. Reyes’ art class.  Entitled, “Abstracted Monochromatic Flower Paintings”, students are reintroduced to the different parts of the flower and to the artist, Georgia O’Keefe, who spent her life painting and seeing flowers in many different ways. O’Keefe is renowned for her close up view and examination of natural objects including flowers and skulls.  In this STEAM project, students were able to use monochromatic colors to bring to life to their paintings. This enhanced their understanding of tints and shades while increasing their skills in mixing and applying paint.

To begin this project, students looked for a flower of their choice using technology: their cell phones.  Best choices were: orchids, irises, daffodils and begonias.  Next, they took a screen shot of that flower.  They then magnified the flower making sure that the background was not in the screen as they proceeded to take another screen shot of the flower.  

Using the second screen shot, students drew the image from their cell phone screen onto an 18" x 18" heavyweight white paper using pencil.  Next the students chose a tempera color from a selection of primary, secondary or tertiary colors.  

Finally the students had to produce a monocharmatic painting using tints and shades of their color: five tints and there shades that they mixed with the addition of white tempera (tints) and black tempera (shales).  

To begin this process they focused on abstracting the flower by going to straight to the center of the flower and working outward.  

The results are extraordinary and hanging both in the classroom and in a display case in the hall.

Some of the students found different images within their flowers and commented that some look like insects and animals etc.