Art Lesson w/ Ms. Jennifer: Tom Thomson
About the Artist:
The fourth of ten children born on August 5, 1877, Tom Thomson grew up exploring the woods and studying nature in rural Ontario, Canada. After landing in a career as a commercial artist, he met a group of fellow graphic artists who began to pursue their own original art outside of work. He combined his love of nature and his new interest in painting landscapes by traveling for long periods into the wilderness in the Pacific Northwest and Ontario. He was an avid canoeist, fisherman, naturalist, woods guide, and explorer. His paintings reflect the rugged beauty he so loved in Algonquin Park. He often did small studies “en plein air” in nature, then worked on larger canvases in his studio.
Let’s look at his artwork:
Watch Ms. Jennifer create her own version of The Jack Pine
Materials:
A copy of The Jack Pine, a photo of a special outdoor place, or work directly in nature!
Your favorite art materials. I will use Oil Pastels. Crayons, markers, paints or colored pencils would all work.
Paper or canvas
Instructions:
After studying the art of Tom Thomson, decide on a nature motif for inspiration. Lightly sketch the main ideas of your design onto your paper or canvas.
Trace your sketch with a bright color of oil pastel or crayon. I like to use a deep reddish orange to recreate the glow of a sunset on the lake. LIttle bits of this color will show through even after you color over it.
Fill in details with many shades of colors. Use several shades of each color if you can, or layer colors on top of one another. For example, the pine leaves might be made of 2-3 greens as well as some of the red, black, or deep blue. The sky has many colors in The Jack Pine: orange, blue, purple, yellow, pink and white. Blend your colors by using a white oil pastel, crayon, or colored pencil over top. (You can blend washable markers by painting over lightly with water after your drawing is finished.)
For Doodlebugs Ages 2-5:
Materials:
White Paper
Cut 1 - ½” thin Strips of brown construction, kraft or packing paper
Pieces of green and blue paper
Glue or glue stick
Instructions:
Look at Tom Thomson’s painting, The Jack Pine https://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/tom-thomson/the-jack-pine-1917.jpg
Glue torn pieces of blue paper along the top half of your paper to be the sky. Maybe include some areas left white or use white scraps to make clouds.
Lay a few strips of brown paper vertically (tall) on your paper to be tree trunks. Talk about how most trees grow up and down or vertical trunks. Make the shapes of trees with your body!
Now lay some torn pieces of green paper along the trunk to be branches and leaves. You can tear other pieces of green to be hills, land, grasses, or bushes.
You did it! Now don’t forget to email images of your work to Jennifer@BlowingRockMuseum.org
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