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Lesson Five
Artist: Frederic Remington Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York in 1861. His father Seth was a First Cavalry Officer and newspaper publisher. From this we can tell that Frederic grew up around soldiers, horses, cowboys & Indians. He went to Yale university where he played football. When he left college it was to become a cowboy. He helped on ranches and wagon trains. As he went along he sketched everything he saw in the American frontier. He died in 1909 at the age of 48. Before he died he left us 2739 drawings and paintings, 25 bronze sculptures and wrote 8 books.
To learn more about Frederic Remington check out the following sites:
Frederic Remington Illustrations
Frederic Remington Art Museum Home Page: This page has quite a few good links on it for Remington bio and artworks.
To see more Western Art check out these sites:
Southwestern United States Rock Art
Site of the Week: Cotters Corner - Art - From the Beginning... I can't say enough about this art site. Make sure you have plenty of time to hang out! M.C. Cotter told me that all e-mail you send from the site will be answered if you have any questions. Don't miss this one.
Word of the Week: draw: verb, to make an image or likeness, sketch usually with writing instruments, depiction of shapes and forms on a surface chiefly by means of lines, the basis for all pictorial representation and one of the first steps in most art works.
Art Project: What are your senses? Did you say: see, touch, smell, taste and hear? Well, your right! When we draw can we use all of our senses? I think they have a part in our drawing. If we both look at the same object will we draw it just alike? Why? Often what we know about we draw with our preconceived picture in our mind. If I didn't know sand paper was rough I might draw a smooth brown square. But, because I know it's rough I'm going to try to put textures in it. Today I want a family member to gather any of the following things they can find and put them on a table: sand paper, nail, cotton ball, pine cone, leaf, piece of fruit, flower, toy truck, doll, etc. I don't want you to look at what they have put together. I want them to put a blind fold on you and have you touch the items and smell the items trying to guess what they are. When you are finished I want you to try to draw at least 1of the items with the most shapes in it on a piece of paper. We are going to be doing Contour Drawing. The contour is the outline or edge of what you are looking at. Not all contours are on the outside of your object though. Take your face. You have an outline of your face and also of your mouth, eyes, etc. When you draw the item I want you to put your pencil down on the paper and look at the item. Don't take your eyes off the item to look at your paper. Pick a spot on the outer edge of your item and pretend your pencil on the paper is right there at that point on the edge. Now as you move your eyes around the edge of what your looking at move your pencil around the paper coordinating your pencil with you eye. Do not look at the paper or lift your pencil off the paper. Can you stay focused? When you are finished with the outer contour (edge). Fill in the inside the same way. What does your finished product look like? Try it again with another object! Can you do the contour of your mom, dad, sister or brother? How about a horse from one of Remingtons pictures! Can you do a contour drawing of the horse? I'll bet you can! Give it a try.
Optional Art Project: Do certain colors help you to remember the smell of that fruit? Do certain scratch marks help you to know that an object is rough? I want you to understand today that often we draw based upon our experiences. Color in one of your contour drawings from the first art project and tell someone why you picked the colors you used.
Optional Writing: Do you have a pet? Can you draw and write about your pet this week telling others about him or her? If you don't have a pet go to your local library and look at a book about horses. Remington traveled in the old west on a horse! What would that be like? What would you need to care for your horse? What responsibilities would you have?
Optional Science: Can you figure out how they got there water to drink in the old west? Where do underground springs come from? How hot does it have to be to evaporate water? Here are a few fun water sites to check out:
National Wildlife Federations NWF Water Page
Water Tidbits Questions & Answers from Estimated Water Use in the US
Optional History Lesson: There's a fun game to learn more about art history here at this site: Inside Art: An Art History Game We know that our artist of the week Frederic Remington spent much of his time outdoors as a cowboy so you may want to check out the National Wildlife Federations NWF Game Page for a little fun!