Atelier Art, Level 1 - Module B, Lesson 3

The Four Seasons

Last school year, I had planned on studying art twice a month. As it turned out, art became one of those subjects that didn't get done (often enough, anyway). This year, I have a more realistic plan...once a month, make time for it no matter what. That should give us just about enough time to finish up Atelier Art, Level 1.

"The Four Seasons" is a lesson on media. Tessa used red, yellow, blue, white and black tempera to finger paint mini scenes of the four seasons. She learned to mix colors to make orange, green and pink as well.

This lesson can be completed all at once or over several days or the year. Since we really don't have time to spread it out, we chose to complete it all at once. The first two seasons went really well, but Tessa began to lose focus by the third season. I pretty much had to direct her every step by the time we got to the last season. It wasn't that she wasn't enjoying the process of painting, more that she was rushing and not thinking through the steps. Having said that, I think we ended up with a really cute final product.

Tessa finger painted a fall scene with pumpkins and a ghost. She learned to mix red and yellow to make orange for the pumpkins, and blue and yellow to make green for the stems and grass.

Tessa used a dull pencil loaded with paint to "draw" in the smaller details of her winter scene.

Tessa mixed red and white paint that she used to dot pink flower blossoms onto a spring tree.

Tessa's completed "The Four Seasons" project. I used an inexpensive piece of black poster board cut down to size and a tape runner to mount her scenes.