Grade: 5.2The Northwest School paintersThere is not a print for this lesson refer to the following books that can be found in the Art Docent closet:Guy Anderson by Bruce Guenther

Mark Tobey Art and Belief by Arthur L. Dahl

Kenneth Callahan by Thomas Orton

Morris Graves: Flower Paintings by Theodore P. Wolff

Be sure to reference the Woodside Braseth Gallery website for more samples. http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/Artists: Guy AndersonKenneth CallahanMorris Graves

Mark Tobey

Materials: 9 x 12 dark brown drawing paper Pencils Oil pastels – MAKE SURE THEY HAVE WHITE for the glass jars Very simple flower arrangements – look at Morris Graves still life

work for reference – use two or three simple flowers with long stems, twigs, branches or berries. Place in glass jars or vases. You could also incorporate apples, plums, or grapes. Keep it simple!

Biography:The Northwest School was an art movement based in Skagit County, Washington and the Seattle area, and was at its peak in the 1930s and 1940s.The movement's early participants, and its defining artists, have become known as "the big four": Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves and Mark Tobey. Their work became recognized nationally when LIFE magazine published a 1953 feature article on them. It was the first such broad recognition of artists from this corner of the world beyond traditional Northwest Native American art forms, which had been long recognized as "northwest art."These artists combined natural elements of the Puget Sound area with traditional Asian aesthetics to create a novel and distinct regional style, particularly in painting and sculpture, with some drawing, printmaking and photography. Tobey, Callahan, Graves and Anderson

were all immersed in and greatly influenced by the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest environment.Seattle was a common locale which they all shared at points in their lives, and some of them were closely associated for a time with the Seattle Art Museum in Volunteer Park. The town of Edmonds also figures heavily in the NW School, as Guy Anderson's hometown and studio were in Edmonds, and Morris Graves's home and studio were in nearby Woodway.[4] Over time, the influence of the natural setting of Western Washington, especially the flat lands, meandering river channels, and wide open skies of the Skagit Valley, became a unifying aspect of their art.[5]

The media most commonly used by the painters in this group of artists were tempera, oil and gouache on canvas. They also used these media on paper and wood. Morris Graves worked for periods in three dimensional forms, using steel and glass and stone, among other materials. Guy Anderson, whose main medium was oil painting, also made works from bronze and had "collages" around his home of found objects from beach walks and deteriorating metal which he saw beauty in. These forms influenced his painting.The style of the Northwest School is characterized by the use of symbols of the nature of Western Washington, as well as the diffuse lighting characteristic of the Skagit Valley area. The lighting and choice of earthy tonal ranges in the color is one of the most important qualities of Northwest art. Tobey, whose artwork did not include as much natural Northwest subject matter, is identified as Northwest style because of the soft pastel colors which he used, and the dark mist chroma of lighting, with few stark shadows.The Northwest artists were labeled as mystics, although some forcefully denied this label. They denied being a "school" of art, but they did know one another. Callahan hosted salons in which the others participated. Anderson and Graves travelled together and painted in the North Cascades and elsewhere.Their styles showed unifying themes that suggested something unique and previously unseen from a far corner of the planet. A review of the titles of some of the paintings leads to spiritual interpretations of northwest life.

Related Art Project: Using the book, show as many of the Northwest Artists as you can but then try to focus in on Morris Graves’s still life work. Discuss the simplicity of the work and talk about tone, colors and line. Create a similar still life arrangement for the kids to do their own Graves still

life. They should start with an outline of the objects, then add oil pastel. They don’t need to over do it – it needs to remain very clean and not busy. Remind them to add a table and background.

Additional resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_School_(art)

http://www.artguidenw.com/Graves.htm

http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/artists/guy-anderson/

http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/artists/mark-tobey/

http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/artists/kenneth-callahan/

http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/artists/morris-graves/

http://artcontrarian.blogspot.com/2010/07/mystic-painters-of-misty-northwest.html