Romare Bearden- Cityscape

This week we did a cityscape project inspired by these two watercolor paintings by Romare Bearden. A little bachground on Bearden:

 Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to (Richard) Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina, and died in New York City on March 12, 1988, at the age of 76. His life and art are marked by exceptional talent, encompassing a broad range of intellectual and scholarly interests, including music, performing arts, history, literature and world art. Bearden was also a celebrated humanist, as demonstrated by his lifelong support of young, emerging artists

We started this project by looking at and discussing the two paintings and what you find in a city.

Project steps:

 1)To begin their city the kids drew a sun or moon and clouds with a yellow or white crayon.

 2) Then I gave them a dish with purple, light blue and dark blue paint and a foam paintbrush.  The kids mixed the colors together and painted over the whole paper. 

4)Once finished with the sky the kids used construction paper shapes to create the buildings.  I told them they could layer the buildings to make them look like some were behind and some were in front of others.  

 5)After all the buildings were glued in place the kids used crayons to add windows, doors, and any other details they wanted

 

   

 Some of the kids opted for finger painting the sky!!