Creative Seashell Art for Kids: Exploring Georgia O'Keeffe's Style with Liquid Watercolors
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Welcome to our art lesson for kids, where we’ll embark on a creative adventure inspired by the renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Georgia O’Keeffe is known for her iconic depictions of nature, and in this lesson, we’ll explore her distinctive style as we create a stunning giant seashell art project using liquid watercolors.
With its vibrant colors and intriguing forms, the seashell serves as the perfect subject for our art project, allowing us to emulate Georgia O’Keeffe’s artistic techniques in a fun and imaginative way. Through this art lesson, we’ll learn about O’Keeffe’s unique approach to composition, use of color, and bold use of scale, and how we can incorporate these elements into our own seashell art using liquid watercolors.
Liquid watercolors are a versatile and vibrant medium that allow for exciting experimentation and creativity, making them perfect for kids to explore their artistic potential. We’ll learn how to use liquid watercolors to bring the beauty of nature to life on our canvas, as we create our own unique interpretation of a giant seashell, inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s art style.
This art lesson is designed to be engaging and educational, providing kids with an opportunity to learn about an influential artist while expressing their own creativity through a hands-on art project. So, let’s dive in and explore the world of Georgia O’Keeffe’s art, as we create our own masterpiece using liquid watercolors and embark on a creative journey inspired by the beauty of nature.
Resources for teaching about Georgia O'Keeffe
When I teach an art lesson, I like to first tell my students about the artist we are studying before we start the actual art part. I try to find great videos, images, and slideshows that have already been created and are easy to access to help educate my students. Here are a few resources for teaching your kids a little bit more about the artist we are studying in this lesson, Georgia O’Keeffe!
Who is Georgia O'Keeffe?
(November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) She was an American artist who is best known for her beautifully painted enlarged flowers. She also painted New York skyscrapers, New Mexico landscapes, and other elements from nature, like animal skulls, trees, and seashells.
Books
Through Georgia's Eyes
This book has beautiful photos and gives a great look at who Georgia O'Keeffe was. Recommended for ages 5-8.
My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter
This is a great introduction to Georgia O'Keeffe. The story is well written and inspiring. Recommended for ages 4-7.
Georgia O'Keeffe - Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists
By now you've probably picked up that I love this series and this book on Georgia O'Keeffe is no exception! These have great visuals and illustrations and do a superb job teaching about an artist!
Videos
Photos of her Artwork
Georgia O'Keeffe Seashell Art
In this lesson we are going to focus on painting a BIG seashell using bright and beautiful liquid watercolors and black glue for a dynamic painting. This lesson is a two part lesson as the black glue outline will need to dry for several hours or overnight before you can paint.
Supplies:
These are the supplies I used (but other products could be substituted):
- Glue All
- Black Acrylic paint
- Watercolor brush
- Crayola blue fine line marker
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Canning or Pickling Salt or Sea Salt
- Orange, Red, violet, green, turquoise, blue liquid watercolor
- 11×11 watercolor paper (I cut mine from a 11x 15 sheet of Canson Montval watercolor paper)
Step-by-Step:
- Mix black acrylic paint into a ½ full Elmer’s Glue All bottle. Stir with the handle of a paintbrush. Add enough paint to get a dark black. I sometimes add some India Ink as well to get the true black color. (just make sure not to add too much of the ink as it will make the glue runny)
- Draw a large spiral shaped seashell filling up the whole paper. (Like Georgia did!)
- With steady pressure go over the pencil line with a stream of black glue. (practice this on a scrap paper to test the flow)This takes a bit of practice but once kids get the hang of it it goes smoothly.
- Lay the paper somewhere out of the way where it can stay flat and allow it to dry for several hours or overnight until the glue is completely dry.
- When it is ready to paint begin with painting the center part orange adding a lot of paint to keep it wet. Quickly add violet to the outside edge and red to the other edge to finish off the center section. (see sample) If the paints are wet they will gently float into one another. Allow this to dry.
- Next add blue to the edge of the top part of the seashell and with a clean wet brush pull out the color to the rest of the top part of the shell.
- Add purple to the other edge. Allow the shell to dry.
- For the background work quickly so the colors stay wet and blend into one another. First add some purple around the shell then some turquoise and some watered down green (just mix the green in a little cup with water).
- While it is still wet sprinkle the salt over some of the background. The salt will absorb the water and leave a textured water like background. (kids love this part!)
- Allow the paint to dry completely then shake the salt off into the garbage.
- Using the blue fine line marker make curved lines half way across the top part of the shell from each side. Go over each line with a clean wet brush to blur the lines a bit.
Don’t worry if this turns out looking more like an abstract painting than a seashell! It will be equally as beautiful and was often the way Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings looked
Step-by-step photos
I'm writing a book!
I am excited to announce my latest project! My daughter and I are working on a big, beautiful, creatively designed book on artist related lessons (similar to the ones on this website but with more details, step by step instructions and photos). The book will be for anyone who wants concise, detailed, well laid out lessons that are ready to teach, in a format that is fun to look at as well.
Book InfoOther Lessons:
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