Lesson Overview:

Romey Stuckart is an artist who creates large-scale paintings of the forest and her surroundings, skillfully balancing abstraction and representation. Her heavily textured paintings are filled with inspiration and intuition. Using Stuckart's painting "The Cedar" as a focal point, students will create paintings while learning about the role that forests play in our environment and our imagination.

Length of Lesson:

Two 45-minute periods

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• discuss Romey Stuckart's painting, "The Cedar."
• paint a tempera or acrylic picture of a forest or treescape, using overlapping shapes, intense hues, and heavy brush textures.
• discuss managed forest techniques to help preserve our environment and forests.

Supplies:

• 12" x 18" white paper, medium to heavy weight
• Tempera paint (or acrylic for older students) in blue, red, yellow, white, and black
• Tempera brushes—flat, round, and detail
• Plastic paint palettes (meat/bakery Styrofoam trays work fine)
• Water/sink
• Paper towels
• Sponges
• Liquid soap to add to tempera as binder (optional)
• Water container, such as plastic recyclable containers

Instructional Plan:

The Process

Motivational Ideas

Display the image of Romey Stuckart's painting "The Cedar." Explain that it is a painting of a crowded creek in Idaho. Ask students to identify the focal point—the largest tree shape—and follow up with these discussion questions:

• Where is the tree placed in the picture?
• Why does it seem close to us?
• Why does the forest seem so crowded?
• How did the artist create that effect?
• Why do you think the artist chose to paint trees rather than an entire landscape?
• Why are trees important?
• What are trees symbolic of in our society?

Discuss the role that forests play in our environment. Discuss issues related to forestry, including the management of forests and the laws that have been passed to protect forests. You may wish to have students use the Forest Puzzles site to learn more about the cycles and management of forests. Students should make connections to local woodlands and consider the similarities and differences between wooded areas near their communities and larger forests. What ecosystems are needed to support them, and which do they in turn support?

You may want to have students explore the World Community of Old Trees Web project before they begin painting. This site focuses on the artistic inspiration to be drawn from trees, particularly old ones.

History and Aesthetic Components

Artists frequently paint pictures of trees. As a contemporary artist, Romey Stuckart gives us more of an impression of a forest rather than an accurate image of the trees. Ask students to identify other artists who paint in this style. Have them use the National Museum of American Art's Web site to research American artists who paint treescapes (or landscapes in general). Students should be able to describe the varying styles used in the paintings (realism, abstraction, etc.) and discuss the resulting impact on the viewer.

Teaching the Lesson

Discuss the objectives and Vocabulary words and review any past painting experiences that have led into this (more advanced) lesson. Tell students they will paint a forest where the trees are very close together. One tree will be the main focal point of the painting, by virtue of its size, color, placement, and texture. This type of painting is called a treescape.

Each student should decide what kind of forest they will paint. Advise students that they should limit the variety of tree types in their paintings. They will have the best result if they paint just one or two different kinds of trees, varying the size of the trees rather than the type. (For example, the treescape could represent a forest full of pine trees.) Students should also select only a few main colors and repeat them throughout the painting, adding black and white to the colors to depict light and dark areas. They should save the brightest colors for last, adding them on top of the dry or almost dry painting along with details and final touches and textures. Students will begin by painting the biggest tree (the focal point).

Process for Students

1. Select the type of tree you will paint. Note its main physical characteristics and colors.
2. Lightly sketch the main (largest and somewhat centered) tree. Extend it through the picture plane so that the base and top of the tree go beyond the paper.
3. Lightly sketch in the rest of the treescape, repeating the same type of tree, but in different sizes and locations. Use overlapping techniques.
4. Using a limited color palette (only a few hues plus black and white) and thick paint, start painting the main tree shape. Continue to paint the rest of the forest until the paper is completely filled with paint and texture.
5. Remember to use the brightest, least-mixed colors on the main tree and toward the bottom of the painting. Trees that are farther away should be painted in more muted, neutral colors and with a less heavy texture.

Closure

Review objectives, vocabulary, and the process. Clean up the work area.

Assessment:

Did students look at and discuss Romey Stuckart's "The Cedar" and successfully paint a tempera or acrylic picture of a forest or treescape using overlapping shapes, intense hues, and heavy brush textures that completely fill the 12" x 18" white paper?

Extensions:

Use "The Cedar" to study other artists' semi-representational painting of treescapes and forests. The whole class could work on a large-scale painting/mural to experience the reality of being in a forest.

Make a semi-representational picture of a crowded forest scene with craypas or oil pastels on medium-weight, earth-colored paper.

Make a multi-media work. Start with a painted background and then add cut or torn fabric or wallpaper of the same hues to represent specific objects and textures.

Authors:

• Boise St. University/ARTSEDGE
  Washington, DC