I was late in finding Emily, but couldn't be happier to know about her now. What a cool, resilient, determined, independent, talented woman to study! She lived in Victoria, British Columbia from December 13, 1871-March 2, 1945. At a time when women just weren't famous artists, she rose to become a Canadian icon. And cool fact, she was a writer AND a painter! Also cool fact, she met Georgia O-Keeffe (another strong and famous female painter) in New York in 1930. And in 1971 and 1991, Canadian postal stamps were made in her honor!
But enough with the random cool facts. Watch this video for a quick biographical introduction. Or read about her here and look through a gallery of her works.
Project time!
Looking at her work with your kids, ask questions like these: what do you think makes her art unique? How would you describe her style? What colors did she use most often? What subject matter(s) do you see? What kinds of lines did she use for her skies? For her trees?
Really emphasize the organic, flowy nature of her lines. And then this is a great opportunity to discuss value (the lightness or darkness of tone and color)! You can find tons of value exercise worksheets to print out online to get warmed up. And then doing a painting like Emily Carr provides a great practice at mixing their own colors! I told my students we were doing a landscape, but keeping it simple. Three trees at most, some grass and maybe a mountain at most. We first focused just on the sky. I only gave them blue, white and if they insisted, purple and told them to think of her lines, think about gradually changing color from light to dark, and to fill all or most of the page with their sky. We let that dry. After it had, I gave them more colors and encouraged them to add trees/mountains/land on top. I LOVE their paintings!!! Look at how awesome and unique they are:
