GEORGIA O’KEEFFE A pioneer of Modern Art, Georgia O'Keeffe created large-scale paintings of natural forms and flowers at close range. She began to spend much of her time in New Mexico and created imagery synonymous with the American Southwest.

Georgia O'Keeffe A 20th century American painter best known for her flower canvases and southwestern landscapes. O'Keeffe found an advocate in famed photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. He showed her work to the public for the first time in 1916 at his gallery 291. Married in 1924, the two formed a professional and personal partnership that lasted until his death in 1946. Some of her popular works from this early period include Black Iris (1926) and Oriental Poppies (1928). Living in New York, she translated some of her environment onto the canvas with such paintings as Shelton Hotel, N.Y. No. 1 (1926). After frequently visiting New Mexico since the late 1920s, O'Keeffe moved there for good in 1946 after her husband’s death and explored the area's rugged landscapes in many works. This environment inspired such paintings as Black Cross, New Mexico (1929) and Cow's Skull with Calico Roses (1931).

Skull with Calico Roses In 1930 Georgia O'Keeffe witnessed a drought in the Southwest that caused the starvation of many animals, whose skeletons littered the landscape. She was fascinated by these bones and shipped a number back to New York so she could paint them. She noted, "To me they are as beautiful as anything I know...The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert even tho' it is vast and empty and untouchable." In Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, O'Keeffe added a macabre note by decorating the skull with artificial flowers, the kind used to adorn graves in New Mexico. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited this painting at his gallery An American Place between 1931 and 1932.

Oriental Poppies Flowers fascinated Georgia and they were her favorite subject on canvas. She seems to have liked particular flowers - the calla lily, poppy, canna, iris, petunia, and jimson weed. O'Keeffe painted Oriental Poppies in 1928. This stunning work was declared a groundbreaking, art masterpiece. O'Keeffe was very much drawn to the abstract - and abstracting aspects of the flowers. She explores the elements of colour, shape and texture of the objects she paints. Which of these is most dominant seems to depend on the individual flower. She was preoccupied with simple forms from the very beginning and her earliest flower paintings. Colour is often bold, frequently carefully modulated but tends to come across as In "Oriental Poppies," O'Keeffe depicts two giant poppy flowers. Measuring 30" x 40", this oil painting is an explosion of brilliant colors on a vast canvas, lending a mesmerizing effect. O'Keefe used dazzling red and orange as the main color of the petals. The hollowed centre and the inner contours of the flowers are painted in deep purple. The skillful shading and velvety finish of the petals accentuates the vibrancy of the flowers. "Oriental Poppies" almost looks like a close up photograph. O'Keeffe did not give any background to the painting, to artfully draw focus onto the flowers. The absence of context in the painting presents them in a new light as pure abstracts. "Oriental Poppies" exudes a startling pull, as if casting a hypnotic spell on the viewer.

Black Cross New Mexico “I saw the crosses so often—and often in unexpected places— like a thin dark veil of the Catholic Church spread over the New Mexico landscape,” said Georgia O’Keeffe about her first visit to Taos, New Mexico, in the summer of 1929. A member of the circle of avant-garde artists who exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery 291 in New York, O’Keeffe had married the progressive photographer and dealer in 1924. What she encountered during late-night walks in the desert and then transformed into Black Cross, New Mexico were probably crosses erected near remote moradas, or chapels, by secret Catholic lay brotherhoods called Penitentes. As this pioneer of American Modernism approached all of her subjects, whether buildings or flowers, landscapes or bones, here O’Keeffe magnified shapes and simplified details to underscore their essential beauty. She painted the cross just as she saw it: “big and strong, put together with wooden pegs,” and behind it, “those hills . . . [that] go on and on—it was like looking at two miles of gray elephants.” For O’Keeffe, “painting the crosses was a way of painting the country,” a beloved region where, in 1949, she settled permanently and worked almost until her death at the age of ninety-eight.

Amiria Gale This is the official collection of shell paintings by Amiria Gale (me – now Amiria Robinson). The paintings explore memory, stories and truth. They are about perception, blindness and the veil across our eyes. These ideas are explored through the interplay of organic form (the boundary between shell, land and sea) and are captured in memories of diving deep and holding your breath; exploding through the surface in need of air; the splintering of sunlight and salt in your eyes.

“I would describe my painting style as a combination of semi-abstract and realism.”

“This is my favourite shell painting “This is my favourite shell painting. I painted it a long time ago, over four weekends. After a crazy hectic week at school I holed up in my bedroom and painted furiously, taking five minutes for lunch, and not stopping until the light from the window was too dim to see. It is one of the first paintings that I ever really planned. Up until that moment, paintings had spontaneously occurred as they happened, but with this one, I knew what I wanted it to be like before I began. Sometimes, when you swim in the ocean – especially when you are young – the waves grab and haul you under, tumbling you head-over-heels, snatching oxygen and pummelling you. Captured glimpses of the shore – coastal landscapes – fractured and distorted through a lens of brilliant salt-water, whirling about.”

One of the first shell paintings of shells that I completed, this is a mixed media piece, created using string, textured paper, modelling compound and acrylic on framed MDF board. Entitled “Shells“, this work is 300 x 300mm, and was painted in 2005. It was sold through Parnell Gallery and now hangs in a private collection in Auckland, New Zealand.

These semi-abstract shell paintings by Amiria Gale break down the barrier between land, shell and sky. Water pours around the shell and spills across sand, The top right work is 400 x 800mm and was painted on MDF board in 2003. The bottom painting, “Shells, land and sea”, is a large work, 800 x 1000mm, created using acrylic and mixed media on framed MDF board in 2005. This piece was also featured on the front cover of Spectrum 4, a collection of New Zealand short stories by graduate writers from the University of Auckland. Both works have been sold and are hanging in private collections in New Zealand.

SCALE 4- Student can create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of two natural objects from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Student can seamlessly combine the foreground, middle ground, and back ground in one cohesive work that shows both a natural object and includes a background that represents the environment the object is found in. 3-LEARNING GOAL Student can create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of a natural object from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Student can seamlessly combine the foreground, middle ground, and back ground in one cohesive work that shows both a natural object and includes a background that represents the environment the object is found in. 2- Student can create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of a natural object from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Design issues are present preventing a seamlessly combined foreground, middle ground, and back ground. Background is not representative of the object’s origin. 1- Student cannot create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of a natural object from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Student cannot seamlessly combine the foreground, middle ground, and back ground in one cohesive work. Background is either missing or not representative of the object’s origin.

4 3 2 VISUAL SCALE 1

3-LEARNING GOAL Student can create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of a natural object from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Student can seamlessly combine the foreground, middle ground, and back ground in one cohesive work that shows both a natural object and includes a background that represents the environment the object is found in.

3-LEARNING GOAL Student can create a semi-abstract large-scale painting of a natural object from close range in the style of Amiria Gale and Georgia O’Keefe. Student can seamlessly combine the foreground, middle ground, and back ground in one cohesive work that shows both a natural object and includes a background that represents the environment the object is found in.

Four Stages of Shell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luU cWJK9dOI