Beach and Palms Landscape

Materials: paper (preferable large format), pencil, brushes, watercolor or acrylic paints

Project takes about 60-75 minutes (can be split into two 30-35 min lessons)

The purpose of this lesson is to learn about a Landscape Genre.

This project was inspired by the artworks of American artist Frederic Kohli:

Introduction:

There are 5 main Genres in Painting: Landscape, Portrait, Still-life, History Painting and Genre Painting.

The word “Landscape” is derived from the Dutch word “landschap”, what means a patch of ground. Landscape is any picture presenting a scenic view of nature or city. For example, images of meadows, hills, mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, forests, coastal views, seascapes, city streets and skylines are all landscapes. Landscape can depict a real, imaginary or idealized scene.

Show kids several images of landscapes. You can play a game with guessing what is a landscape and what is not. Show kids images of landscapes, portraits, still-lives and ask to name landscapes only. If the kids are older (7-8) you can show tricky images like portraits with a landscape on a background.

Project

• place the paper horizontally and draw a horizon line from one edge to another at the middle of the paper (or a little higher)

• draw a beach line as a wide smile (curved, but not too much)

•  draw the trunks of the palms on one side of the beach or both. The number of palms can be 1 to 3 (if more, there will be not enough empty space for the sea)

• add coconuts and leaves on the tops of the palms. Tell kids skip detailing the leaves and draw them simple (like a comb) because they will be painted over.

• add details: a hut or a cabin, sun, clouds, yachts, rocks, shells or even an alligator

• begin painting with the lightest colors (yellow sand and sun), then do the light-blue sky (if you use watercolor paint – add water, if you use acrylic  – add white paint). Use wide brushes for large areas of sand, sky and sea. Paint the sea with different shades of blue, purple and aquamarine. Use small (thin) brushes for painting palms and details. When finishing, add some accents: waves on the sea, small rocks or grass.

The student’s paintings turned great!!! Here are some of them: