
Click for larger version of this image
|
|
This
month . . .
Art in the Garden
Appreciating
and taking inspiration from nature's beauty
It's natural
for a youth garden to be the muse, art supply storehouse,
gallery, and studio for students -- after all,
natural products were the very first art media humans ever
used! And the first inspiration, as well. Children can find
them in abundance by pausing for a moment and looking closely:
delicate drops of dew on the petals of a rose, living fountains
of ornamental
grass, a graceful butterfly pausing to sip nectar from a colorful
blossom. Such appealing subjects
and views make the garden a convenient space
to both observe and record nature's beauty. The
same keen
eye
students develop in the pursuit of art helps hone scientific
observation skills, too.
Consider,
too, that gardeners
are artists who use plants as their paints and the land
as their canvas. They skillfully mold natural beauty
into dynamic landscapes that are pleasing to the eye and spirit.
In turn, the garden has inspired artists
throughout recorded history, stimulating the creation of
thousands of
paintings, photographs, and other compositions.
In this
month's Kids
Garden News, we share ideas for using
the garden to engage students in the visual arts, from learning
about basic art principles to using natural materials
as media.
________________________________
Also
in this issue, we spotlight a few of the many inspiring
2006 Mantis Award winners who are making tremendous impact in
their communities.
As always,
check out the News
page to keep abreast of garden-related education resources,
funding, and events.
|
|
|

Here
are a few ideas for helping you use the youth garden
as an artistic stimulus
and source of materials. Explore students’ questions as they come
up, and encourage them to experiment with rendering their experiences
in various media.
The
Garden as Visual Aid
The garden demonstrates the basic elements and principles of art
giving students 3-D examples to complement textbook definitions.
Concepts like color, form, and texture come to life in the garden.
Activity ideas include:
Color
-
Take
a color wheel out to the garden and see if you find a match
for each of the "spokes."
-
-
Conduct
a color hunt in the garden matching squares of paint color
samples to plants and talk about the
wide variety
of shades and hues found in nature.
-
Cut
out a variety of shapes (e.g., circles, triangles, squares,
rectangles) from cardstock
or heavy paper. Give each student one of these shapes
and ask them to find a matching form in the garden.
-
Introduce
the students to a few common
tree shapes. Record
observations about
the shapes of trees in and around your
garden.
-
Many visual
textures are represented in the garden, from fine
(generally created by smaller-leaved plants like cosmos or
dill) to coarse (such as large-leaved plants like
hostas). Compare visual textures to tactile textures
— those sensed via touch,
such as smooth and soft
(lamb's ear) and
rough (cucumber
leaves).
-
Collect
samples of leaves with varying visual and tactile textures
to display at a discovery station
in the
classroom (be
sure to avoid poisonous
plants).
Give students an opportunity to explore
both visual and tactile textures
and ask them to make
a written description of each object using
at least three adjectives. Next, brainstorm
how you might capture these
textures using various techniques and materials
(e.g., clay, paint, papier mâché).
-
Have
students make observations in the garden, and ask them
to record and express their findings visually, as a pencil
sketch,
with
paints,
or via photography.
-
For
work surfaces, set up portable tables or easels, or give each
student clipboards. You can also create
your own surfaces
by recycling
materials, such as old lunchroom
trays or pieces of cardboard boxes or wood scraps (watch for
rough
edges).
-
If
you want to offer students a specific focus, try a technique
used by Georgia O'Keefe.
Cut a cardboard frame for each student. Ask students
to place the frame somewhere in the garden, then
to draw only what's inside the frame with the goal
of capturing details.
-
Another
approach is to ask students to observe the same spot at different
times of the day and record changes they
observe.
See The
Changing Garden for a detailed description
of this activity.
The
Garden as Art Supply Store
The
possibilities are only limited by the materials and students’ creativity.
Before sending kids to the garden to gather items for their work,
Make
a Garden Art Box, then let them know what they can and can’t
harvest or collect. After that, imagination
rules!
-
Press
flowers and leaves. Use them to decorate pictures and
stationary, or to make collages.
-
Grow
gourds for crafting bird houses or other decorative objects.
-
Create
your own natural dyes from plant materials such as marigolds
and indigo.
-
Dry
or use fresh-cut flowers and leaves to make floral arrangements,
such as wreaths.
-
Collect
pine cones and stones
and decorate
them as “nature
pets.”
The
Garden as Gallery
The tranquil
garden setting allows for focused study
and appreciation of artworks.
Art also
benefits
the garden by providing focal points and complementary
elements to landscape designs by adding
new colors, forms, and textures. In youth gardens you’ll often
see sculptures, murals, decorative stepping
stones, painted planting containers, gazing
balls, scarecrows, birdhouses, and handmade wind chimes. Giving
kids the opportunity
to display their art in the garden increases
their feelings of ownership and strengthens their investment in
the gardens' upkeep.
The
Garden in Art History
Georgia O'Keefe, Claude Monet, and Paul Cézanne…they
were just a few ground-breaking artists whose works were inspired
by plants
and gardens. Include studies of these artists
and their works in your garden program using the following books:
Paul
Cézanne: A Painter's Journey by Robert
Burleigh
Through
Georgia's Eyes by Rachel Rodriquez
Linnea
in Monet's Garden
by Christian Bjork
Resources
from Kidsgardening.com
For more ideas for transforming your youth garden into an art
studio, read Bringing Art to Life in Schoolyards
Here's
where you'll find
ideas and instructions for specific art projects:
Dyeing to Find Out: Extracting Nature's Colors
Preserving
Buds and Blooms: Drying Summer's Hues
Collecting Plants: A Pressing Project: Making Herbaria, Field Guides,
Gifts
Making Paper: Experience the Fiber of Learning
An Eye on the Garden: Using Cameras to Focus Learning
Sunflower
sketch and leaf collage images used with permission.Copyright© Rick Rzzotto.
Copyright© 2006
National Gardening Association
|
|
|
Support
the National Gardening Association!
As
a thank you for supporting NGA with a donation of $24.95
or more, we are happy to offer the following:
10%
Discount on
items at the Gardening with Kids store and NGA
Garden Shop.
Free
Courses
Take all 5 online courses ... FREE.
Answers
to Your Gardening Questions
Our gardening experts will tackle
your growing dilemmas.
Click
here to become a Supporter.
COMMENTS?
We welcome your questions and comments about this newsletter or your
membership. Please
reply to: NGA
editor.
|
|