Gourds in Watercolor

With the arrival of fall, we turned our thoughts to things harvest this week in the atelier. The children were introduced to gourds and colorful corn as inspiration for small watercolor paintings. They were asked to attempt painting a gourd on their paper, and they each chose the one they wanted to reference. We worked with the colors of the subject matter – light and dark orange, green and brown. One gourd stood out amongst the children as being a “small pumpkin”, which seemed to be a favorite. They also loved the “special” corn. They really enjoyed this project!

When introduced to the gourds and corn:

“Do you see this orange pumpkin? Juice comes out of them….but not a lot. And this corn is not the corn you eat, it’s special corn. You can peel it!” ~Anika

When asked what one of the larger gourds smelled like:

“It smells like pumpkin!” ~Sophia

“It doesn’t smell.” ~Alaira

“It smells like grayish.” ~Jalie

When asked what the cornhusks sound like when they rustle:

“The corn husk sounds like rain (when you shake it)!” And as she shook the corn she tried it out as a new tickling tool, “I’m tickling you with the corn!” ~Mia G.

When asked what the gourds look like:

“This one looks like a lemon!" ~Ava

“This one looks like a pear! This one looks like an octagon – I mean – a septagon”! This one is a drum! This one is a hat (wears the gourd on his head)! ~Corbin

“It looks like a cat, a very different cat. I’m going to paint this gourd!” ~Alaira

When asked how the gourds look and feel:

“It’s kind of bumpy, and also kind of brownish-orangish.” ~Jalie

Mia S. then became the facilitator for this process! She chimed in:

“Is this pumpkin like a circle? And what about this one? And what about this other one?” (she went through all of them together with Jalie)

During the painting process:

"These are beautiful paintings!” ~Mia S.

“I need more orange paint because I need a lot for this picture.” ~McKenna

"I want to use purple to make my gourd.” ~Ava

"When I mix peach and brown it makes light brown!” ~Corbin (he proceeded to do many color studies thereafter)

Until next time...

Yvonne