Art Nouveau is an art movement from the late 1800s through the early 1900s that used anything from nature as inspiration. Louis Comfort Tiffany's stained glass work is used as an example of flowing, organic lines and forms. Use feathers, flowers, shells and insects to inspire your art students to create an Art Nouveau style line drawing in colored pencil. ages 9+
Student example:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r73x8SLx7JqjOeGaLs77WAYNHQtg7zdL/view?usp=sharing
ART NOUVEAU FEATHERS
Supplies:
pencil, paper, colored pencil
Spotlight Artist:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
I am a big fan of Public Television’s “Antiques Roadshow”. For the most part my students are not familiar with it; but, occasionally one of them says that their grandmother loves the show, which makes me feel old.
The program hosts expert antique appraisers who look at the items brought in and assess their value. I enjoy hearing the history behind the items that someone’s grandmother had stored in the attic... Or bought in a yard sale for three dollars... Or, saved from the garbage heap, convinced it was worth a bundle.
People from all over bring their precious objects in for appraisal in hopes that it might pay for their childrens’ college education. And every few shows, someone brings in a stained glass lamp or glazed vase in hopes that it is a Tiffany.
Louis Comfort Tiffany lived in New York in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His father started Tiffany’s, the world famous jewelry store. Lewis Comfort is an American artist and craftsman best known for his work in stained glass. Show the class some printouts from the internet of his stained glass windows, lamp shades and also his ceramic work. Tiffany is the American artist most associated with the art movement called Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau, french for ‘New Art’, is identified by organic lines, and the use of anything from nature. Dragonfly jewelry, metal detail work of vines and flowers, ceramic work with flowing, curving form. There are no sharp lines or corners in Art Nouveau and that is the challenge for your students.
I have a few peacock feathers and shells at home and I went to a home decor store for a few more types of feathers and some silk flowers and set them all out on the tables for the students. I also printed out some simple art nouveau drawings of feathers and flowers for inspiration. Get the guys involved with pictures of insects like dragon flies, beetles, moths and bees which were popular in art nouveau work.
Allow your students the freedom of experimenting with curling, twisting, meandering lines. First, outlining, then adding detail to a simple object from nature. Start drawing lightly in pencil, then go over the lines you want to keep with colored pencil. There are always kids who are afraid of making a mistake or worried that their work will turn out looking bad. Assure them that the goal is not the finished piece but the process. Encourage your students to allow their pencil to draw flowing lines and organic patterns without concern for how it ends up. The adult coloring books that have become so poplar are a great example of this. The mandalas and celtic patterns allow for relaxation and getting lost in the design. I think that even if the drawings become abstract, that is ok, as long as the art work is organic and not geometric.
By the way, the spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, who was influenced by the Art Nouveau movement, is famous for his buildings which are fantastically detailed and impossibly ornate. So ornate in fact, that even after forty years of obsessively working on his church in Barcelona it was never considered finished... and it is amazing. Our english word, gaudy, means extravagant and overdone to the point of being tasteless. Does our word ‘Gaudy’ come from Antoni Gaudi’s overly done architectural style? (the answer is no but what a coincidence!) Have the kids take a look at Gaudi’s one of a kind masterpiece at SagradaFamilia.org. After 140 years, it continues to be under construction.