1. First Grade Art Docent Program - Earhart Elementary School
Artists Use Color
First Grade
Art Docent Program - Earhart Elementary School

2. Secondary Colors
Primary Colors
Orange
Green
Violet
Red
Yellow
Blue
Cool Colors:
Blue
Green
Violet
[Like water &
snow and
cool things]
Warm Colors:
Red
Orange
Yellow
[Like fire &
warm things]
Red-Orange
Yellow-Orange
Yellow-Green
Blue-Green
Blue-Violet
Red-Violet
Red to Green
Yellow to Violet
Blue to Orange
Complementary Colors
Intermediate Colors

3. When Do You Marry?
Paul Gauguin [ ] was born in Paris. He didn’t like city life, and spent most of the rest of his life in Tahiti painting in the bright sunlight. He loved to use colors in new ways.
This is a picture of two native women sitting on the beach, and enjoying each other’s company.
What do you see behind them?
Do you see some tiny figures in the distance?
What sounds would you hear?
Can you give me examples of how the artist use complementary colors close to each other in this picture?

4. Woman with a Fan
Alexei von Jawlensky [ ] was a Russian painter. He worked with several groups of artists who were very interested in using bright and expressive colors.
What are the three most important colors in this portrait of a woman with a fan?
Did the artist use the primary colors in a realistic way or a more decorative manner?
Can you find any black outlines? [Outline are also called contour line, which to show us the edges of things.
Can you find a tan outline around her face?
Do you see any green color?
Does the woman look sad, thoughtful, or what?
Why she is holding a fan?
Do you think the artist painted rapidly or slowly? Why?

5. Church of Niedergrunstedt
Lyonel Feininger [ ] was born in New York. He liked to paint buildings, churches, towns and sea.
Do you see any cool colors here?
The center of this painting is a church. Do you see any other buildings?
Can you name the geometric shapes in this painting?
What do the harsh shapes and bright blues remind you of?
Do they remind you of some colored glass?
Does the painting have a dream-like feeling?
Can you imagine how this picture would look if using warm colors?

6. Mlle Violette
Odilon Redon [ ] was born in France. He often used profiles and flowers in his colorful pictures. His artworks have been called “visual poems”. He painted a private world of beautiful dream-filled images.
This young woman named Mademoiselle Violette. Can you describe her? Quiet? Daydreaming?
All around her face & figure are dull, neutral colors. Then the rest of the space is filled with beautiful flowers painted in light tones called tints.
The artist mixed the colors with white to make all these tints.
Did the artist use any dark outlines around the flowers?

7. Poor Man’s Cotton
Hale Woodruff [ ] was born in Illinois. He went to France to learn European moderns as Cezanne and Matisse. He painted this picture when he was 44 years old.
Do you see the primary colors?
It is a picture of women and a man very busily chopping cotton. Have you ever hoed weeds in a garden?
Have you ever seen a field of cotton? Most of the cotton in America is grown in the southern states, but there are some cotton fields in California too.
What path do your eyes take as they move from figure to figure?
Do you see any round shapes?
Do you think this picture is full of action?

8. Sunflowers No. 2
Vincent van Gogh [ ] He liked to be called by his first name. Color was very important to van Gogh. He felt that red was “warm and heady like wine, blue was spiritual and divine.”
Can you find his name in this picture?
Is this a warm color or cool color painting? What do the colors remind you of? On fire? Or icy cold?
The artist painted several sunflower paintings. One of these sunflower paintings was being sold for under $50 million. Do you know how many zero in $50 million? [$50,000,000]

9. Girl Reading
Jean-Honore Fragonard [ ] was born in France. He was born about 50 years before George Washington was President of the United States. He liked to paint landscapes and interiors of homes that included people in compositions.
Did the artist use cool color or warm color to make this portrait of a young girl reading a book?
Is she sitting comfortably? How can you tell?
Did you notice how her little pinky is curved as she holds the book? Where else do you see other curve shapes?

10. Examples