Post on 01-Mar-2022
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!
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.
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 3
Drawing the Landscape
Drawing Guide on Page 7!
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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!
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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
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 6
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).
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 7
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
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 8
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
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
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 9
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.
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 10
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
DEEP SPACE SPARKLE & THE SPARKLERS CLUB 11