Poppy Field Paintings

These paintings were created by my grade threes back in November to commemorate Remembrance Day. I believe it is also known as Veteran's Day or Poppies Day in other countries. The idea for these came from some very inspiring 2nd grade paintings I spied at Brunswick Acres Art.

In the first lesson we discussed Remembrance Day and the significance of poppies to remember those who have fought in wars. We also looked at some lovely photos online of endless fields of poppies.

I asked students to begin with a piece of paper in a shade of blue of their choice. Some chose a sky blue, some chose darker blues to represent a night-time landscape and other chose a very pale blue they could paint with warmer colours to represent a sunrise or sunset. 

We began with green tempera paint, placing a horizon line somewhere across the page and painting the bottom area of the page green to represent grass in a field. I encouraged the mixing an blending of different greens. We also discussed the way a sky really looks - i.e, clouds aren't perfectly formed, they vary in colour and the sun is not a yellow ball in the corner of the frame. They then painted their sky to represent the time of day they wished to capture.

Once dry I had the students go back to their field and use oil pastels in greens and yellows to add some lines for the texture of the grass and stems. I then talked about achieving depth. We looked at some close up photos of poppy flowers to note the basic shape then we looked again at the photos of fields to see the poppies changing size and shape as they neared the horizon line. Students then used small brushes to paint their poppies in red acrylic. 

Claude Monet's 'Poppy Field in Argenteuil' via wikimedia.

You could always relate this project to the Impressionist style of painting, with particular reference to Claude Monet's poppy field paintings.