gordon harrison seasonal landscape lesson

Time Needed: 2 Sessions @ 45 Minutes

S E A SO N AL L A N DSC A P EColor, Space, & Value

I N S P I R E D B Y G O R D O N H A R R I S O N

W I N T E RA U T U M N

S P R I N G

S U M M E R

DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 2

In this lesson, inspired by Canadian artist

Gordon Harris, students will explore how

the colors in a landscape can change

based on the seasons. They will choose

a season and create their own custom

color palette by mixing to create tints

and shades, exploring the mood that

colors can give to a painting.

ABOUT GORDON HARRISON Gordon Harrison is a contemporary

Canadian landscape painter who lives in Ottawa, Ontario. He studied to be a

landscape architect at the University of Toronto and worked in that field for a long

time before devoting his life to painting full time. Inspired by the Group of Seven,

Harrison is largely self-taught and spends his time not only painting, but educating

others and is involved in his community. Watch a 2 minute video clip of a Gordon

Harrison interview HERE!

Harrison, Gordon. Autumn Memories Collection 34. Oil on canvas. Image from:

www.gordonharrisgallery.com

6” x 18” black sulphite paper

Pencil

Liquid tempera paint

Medium round paintbrush

What You’ll Need:

S E A SO N AL L A N DSC A P EI N S P I R E D B Y G O R D O N H A R R I S O N

Check out more of Harrison’s art!

https://gordonharrisongallery.com/

https://youtu.be/dH4xhrXcZGQ?t=6

https://youtu.be/dH4xhrXcZGQ?t=6

https://gordonharrisongallery.com/

Start with a piece of 6” x 18” black

sulphite paper.

In this lesson, the colors are the star

of the show, so the landscape drawing is

fairly simplified. You can follow the

drawing guide on page 7.

Use a pencil

to draw several

tree trunks

across the paper. Be sure to extend from the top to the

bottom of the paper. You can draw simple, straight trunks,

forked trunks or a variety of both. Avoid drawing too

many, as it will make the painting portion of the project

more difficult.

Draw a HORIZON LINE from left to right across the paper.

When you reach a tree trunk, pick up your pencil and

continue on the other side of the trunk. This will help to make your trees look like they

are in the FOREGROUND and that they

OVERLAP, or are in front of the horizon

line.

In the BACKGROUND, draw a

curved line that extends from middle of

the horizon line up to the right edge of

the paper. Again, pick up your pencil

when you reach a tree trunk so the hill

appears to be behind the trees.


Drawing the Landscape

Drawing Guide on Page 7!


Choosing a Color Scheme Artists often choose color palettes that help create a MOOD, or feeling in their artwork.

Gordon Harrison often changes his COLOR PALETTE to depict different seasons, using a

few main colors with variations in value to create a sense of HARMONY in his landscapes.

Print and pass out or project the Seasonal Color Palette Handout (on page 8). Spend a

few minutes discussing Harrison’s LANDSCAPES with students, specifically the COLORS

that he chooses to portray different seasons. This will help them to prepare for their own

painting as they OBSERVE the paintings closely.

You could format this either as a whole class discussion or as a partner or group activity.

Here are some sample questions to ask your students: Ask them to choose one of the four landscapes that interests them.

What season is that landscape set in? How do you know?

How do the colors in the painting help you to make that decision?

How would you describe the colors; bright, soft, dark, warm, cool, vibrant, subdued?

What colors do you see? What are the main 3 or 4 colors that are used over and over?

Did Gordon Harrison use any tints or shades of these colors?

Note: The rigor in this activity comes from extending the questions that you ask students. Instead

of asking a question that can be summed up in one word or a yes or no, ask students to defend

their answers. How do you know? What in the painting makes you think that? These are both good

extensions to add onto questions.

Have students choose a season to depict in their landscape. Ask them to make a plan for the

3-4 main colors that they would like to use in the landscape.

Color Guide on Page 8!


Once students have chosen the 3-4 main colors for

their landscape, they are ready to begin painting. It

might be helpful to keep the Seasonal Color Palette

worksheet out for students to reference. If you printed

them out, you can slide them into page protectors to

keep them paint-free.

For my landscape I chose the dominant colors: red,

orange, green and blue.

Set out a palette of liquid tempera paint in primary

colors, plus black and white. Liquid tempera paint is

typically translucent and will appear streaky and see-

through on black paper. However, if you add a bit of

white to EVERY color, it will help the colors to sit brightly

on top of the paper.

Students can mix, using PRIMARY COLORS to create

any SECONDARY COLORS that they may need. To save

time, you can skip the primary and secondary color

mixing and instead focus solely on VALUE.

Choose a color to begin with. Use your paintbrush to

dab that color in the FOREGROUND. If you’re painting a

winter landscape with snow, you can smooth out the

foreground instead of dabbing. Your paint should

overlap the bottom of the trees.

TIP: If your paint is streaky or not opaque enough you can try: adding more white to your paint, drying your paintbrush off after washing or adding a second layer of paint over the first. Add your second color underneath the first, extending

to the bottom of the page. Save the colors that you made to use later on.

Use another one of your dominant colors to paint the ground behind the trees. Typically the ground at

the front will be darker than the hills behind.

Leave space between the foreground and the ground behind it. This will help to add CONTRAST, by

leaving a bold black outline between each section of the painting.

Mix white into your ground color to create a TINT, or lighter version of the color. Paint the closest hill

in the BACKGROUND, again leaving a black space between the two sections.

For the furthest hill, mix more white in to the color before painting.

Painting the Ground


Putting It All Together Choose a color for the trees. Don’t be too

concerned with the realistic colors of trees.

Many of Gordon Harrison’s paintings feature

blue or purple trees, depending on the

season.

Paint the tree trunks.

Choose a color for the sky. I chose to add

white to the blue that I used for the trees,

but you could choose a completely different

color, especially if you used brown for the

trees.

Use some of the first two colors that you

saved from the foreground to add some

leaves to the trees. Use a dabbing motion to

add them to the top. If you made a winter

landscape, you could add some snow by

using white or just leave the trees bare.

ALTERNATIVE COLOR OPTIONS: If your students are up for a little

challenge, or you’d like to use this for an

older grade level, your students can focus

less on mixing to make tints, and more

on mixing to make different versions of

each color, like the greens I used. Students can

experiment with adding COMPLEMENTARY COLORS, or colors across from each

other on the color wheel to neutralize a

color, or dull it down. (For example,

adding red to green will make it a bit

more neutral and dull). Or mixing

ANALOGOUS colors to create brighter

colors. (Like adding yellow to green will

brighten it up a bit).


Draw a horizon line behind your tree trunks across the entire page.

Draw some curved lines above your horizon line to add hills to the background.

Gordon Harrison landscape

D R A W I N G G U I D E

Begin by drawing some tree trunks, you can make them simple and straight or forked and different.

1

3

2


Seasonal Color H A N D O U T

Harrison, Gordon. Paysages d’hiver Collection 42. Oil on canvas. Image from: www.gordonharrisongallery.com

Harrison, Gordon. Hello Spring Collection 12. Oil on canvas. Image from: www.gordonharrisongallery.com

Harrison, Gordon. Killarny Woods Collection 1. Oil on canvas. Image from: www.gordonharrisongallery.com

Harrison, Gordon. Autumn Expressions Collection 61. Oil on canvas. Image from: www.gordonharrisongallery.com

http://www.gordonharrisongallery.com








CREATING Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work — Brainstorm approaches for design

problem—Collaboratively set goals and create purposeful and meaningful artwork

Organize and develop artistic ideas and work — Explore and invent art-making

techniques-care for materials while art-making—Document and describe environments

Refine and complete artistic work—Revise artwork in progress through insights gained

from peers and discussion

Presenting/producing Analyze, interpret and select artistic work for presentation— Analyze how past, present

and emerging technologies have impacted preservation and presentations of artwork

Develop and refine artistic work for presentation — Analyze the various considerations for

presenting and protecting work in all settings and forms

Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work — Compare and contrast

purposes of art museums, etc. and the types of personal experiences they provide

Responding Perceive and analyze artistic work- Compare responses to artwork after experiencing the

medium— analyze messages in visual imagery Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work — Interpret art by referring to contextual info

and analyzing relevant subject matter, characteristics and media

Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work— Apply one set of criteria to evaluate more than

one work of art

Connecting Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art- Create works of

art that reflect community cultural traditions

Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding- Through observation, infer information about time, place and culture in

which a work of art was created

NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS-fourth grade

X

X

X

X

X


CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats,

including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

After introducing the students to Gordon Harrison’s artwork via posters, PowerPoint, etc., students

can be asked to answer questions orally to paraphrase what they have learned about the style of his

art, use of the elements of art and principles of design in the form of a discussion.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

After students finish their art, you can have them fill out the artist statement worksheet (located in

Teacher Aids). This information leads them to reflect on the process of art making while forming an

opinion about their own work based on the processes used, materials used, inspirations, etc.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and

spelling when writing.

As students complete their written responses to the artist statement or any other written question

for this lesson, encouraging proper capitalization and spelling helps students make connections

about the importance of language across content areas.

Common core standards for gordon harrison seasonal

landscape

I CAN STATEMENTS FOR gordon harrison seasonal landscape

• Today I will learn about Canadian artist, GORDON HARRISON so that I CAN use his artwork as

inspiration to create my own LANDSCAPE.

• Today I will learn about COLOR and VALUE so that I CAN choose a COLOR PALETTE of 3 to 4

colors that helps depict the MOOD of my chosen season and make TINTS of those colors by

adding white.

• Today I will learn about SPACE and CONTRAST so that I CAN create a FOREGROUND, MIDDLE

GROUND and BACKGROUND in my artwork, leaving black outlines around each section while I

paint so that they stand out.


ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST

Student Name:

Can the student tell me three facts about Gordon Harrison’s life and artwork?

Did the student choose a color palette of 3-4 colors and use it throughout their painting?

Did the student leave black space between each section of their painting to create contrast?

Main Ideas from:

GORDON HARRISON SEASONAL

LANDSCAPE


gordon harrison seasonal landscape lesson

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