Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887. She was the second of seven children to be raised on a dairy farm in a sleepy rural area of Wisconsin.

By age 10, she knew she wanted to be an artist and began taking lessons from a local watercolor artist. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later taught art at several schools, including Columbia University. She felt constrained by the prevailing practice of recreating exactly what she saw on canvas. Eventually, she moved to focus more on line and emotion than an exact portrayal of the object or scene. She ached to share her feelings through her art.

A close friend sent some of her drawings to a prominent photographer and art dealer, Alfred Stieglitz, in New York. He called them the “purest, finest, sincerest things that had entered [his gallery] 291 in a long while” He immediately set up a showing for her work. He promoted and exhibited her works professionally. Their work together soon led to their marriage in 1924.

In 1929, she began spending time in New Mexico, eventually living there full time after Alfred died. She was inspired by the desert landscape, which was the subject of many of her paintings. Georgia had a quiet, wandering personality and felt most at home in the “lonely landscapes” of the Southwest.

She achieved noterietay in her lifetime and her art was widely celebrated. Especially by those in the feminist movement, who sought after her as an ally and voice. However, she wanted to be known just as an artist, not a “female artist” and distanced herself from the movement. She was also known as a founder of the American Modernist movement. Her work transcended a lot of the established boundaries of the time, she was among the first to explore abstract painting (where there is no discernible subject) as well as to combine landscapes (a picture of a place) with a still life (a picture of a thing); creating something completely new.

Georgia O’Keeffe died on March 6, 1986 at the age 98 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Project:
Today we will create our own O’Keeffian flower pictures, looking at them the way Georgia O’Keeffe did. Take a moment to really look at a few flowers with the students. Point out the variations of colors and shapes. Talk to them about how they can show a full flower or a few flowers, and they can also zoom in closely and show the flower from a different view.

As you look at O’Keeffe’s pictures, ask the students what they feel, what these pictures bring to mind. Point out that the colors are much more intense then they typically are in real life and the shapes tend to be simplified. Ask why they think that is. Remind them that O’Keeffe wanted to show her emotions in her work. Ask what they think she was feeling

1. Show students the variety of paper colors we have available. There are a few papers that have pastel starts. Show them how the darker colors bring out different colors than the white paper does.

2. Ask the students to share the flowers that you have placed on each table or spread around the desks. They are welcome to do more than one picture, so feel free to experiment a bit and try a few different flowers and angles.

3. They can layout their drawing in pencil, but it isn’t necessary. Part of the fun of this style of work, is the ability to play around a little!

4. Before students get started, share these tips for using pastels well:
Oil pastels are VERY soft, hold them lightly, you don’t want to press too hard. (for older students you can also explain that it fills up the little groves in the paper so that you can’t layer any more colors.)
They look best when you layer colors.
Start with a middle color that you will use lightly over the whole area.
Shade in with a darker color for the areas underneath other petals or farther away from the light.
Then use a light color to show where the highlights (where the light hits most directly.)
You may want to add in a few other colors in different areas! For example, you don’t have to stick to all greens to make a leaf. You can add some blue, purple, red or yellow.
Use the pastels to blend. You can lightly go over the top of an area with a lighter color to blend the colors underneath. (Don’t blend with your finger, it will just rub the pastel off.)
Keep your marks small and close together to get the best blending.

5. Once they are done, warn them to be careful with their papers, the colors can smear and rub off. There will be long sheets of paper on the cart that you can fold to make a protective color for the pastel.