Vanessa+G.

Georgia O’ Keefe

Georgia O’Keefe was born on November 15, 1887 and died on March 6, 1986. She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She grew up on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was the second of seven children. Georgia would take art lessons at home. The teachers always knew that she had a special gift.

Georgia O’Keefe was an expressionistic artist, but also she had her own artistic style. Expressionistic painters use their own inner and emotion. Expressionistic painting can be seen in any time period. She liked to paint with oils paints on canvas or pastels on paper. Georgia enjoyed painting pictures of flowers, landscapes, and bones. She would play with colors and light with in the paintings. She got her ideas of what to paint from life experiences and from places she lived.

Georgia O’Keefe’s husband had some influence on her style. His name was Alfred Stieglitz. He was a photographer, and told Georgia she should have her own kind of style. Other people such as John Martin, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Paul Strand, Edward Steichen also influenced her. As soon as Georgia graduated high school she was determined to be an artist. She got training from the Art Institute of Chicago school, the Art Students League of New York, the University of Virginia, and Colombia University’s Teachers College in New York. She also taught at some schools. She taught at elementary schools, high schools, and colleges in Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina. http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=%2Fgetthumb.asp&CID=4BCB9F5832744EDCBAA23128657EA833&txtSearch=georgia+o%27keefe&imageField2.x=0&imageField2.y=0



Living Life is the name I picked for my piece of artwork. I named it that because I thought the flower was kind of warm looking and life is full of nice things and relationships. Also since it’s kind of dark, not really bright, I think it has more of a serious look to it. Taking things seriously is a part of life. For this piece of artwork I used oil pastels. I used oranges, browns, and dark reds.

I was inspired to choose Georgia O’Keefe as my artist because most of her artwork is of flowers. I like drawing flowers because they can be any colors and there are different types. I was trying to show both serious or mature and warm, and loving emotions. I really enjoyed working on this piece. I liked it because it wasn’t too hard to do but it still turned out nicely. I blended colors together in some spots. For example, in the spots that I wanted darker orange, I mixed some red and brown. In the areas I wanted light brown, I would lightly draw with brown and then smear it. I think this piece was pretty much a success. The only thing I would do differently is, I would draw it bigger and brighter. I would draw it bigger so it would fit the paper better.

Overall, I enjoyed working on this piece of artwork and learning about Georgia O’Keefe. I learned things about her and I can see how she feels when doing her artwork. Drawing flowers or landscapes can be fun!