Grant Wood Inspired Landscape Collages

3rd Grade students created these painted paper collage works inspired by Grant Wood. 

The concept of Intermediate colors (Tertiary colors) has been one that my students sometimes have a tough time getting. I would go over the color wheel with them, but we didn't spend much time on it. This year I decided to try something a bit different with my Grant Wood landscape collage project. We spent a couple art classes making painted papers (which students love to do!). I had students pair up so that they could work together. They chose a primary and a secondary color by it to mix into an intermediate color. They mixed the color together on a paper plate and each painted a paper. They used some painting combs or craft sticks to draw some texture into the paint before putting it on the drying rack. The goal was for each pair to mix all six intermediate colors in the two painting classes.

Once we had our papers painted, the students took a look at landscape paintings by Grant Wood. We talked about his use of overlapping and shape. They chose a construction paper for the "sky" color and began to cut and put together their own landscape collage. I encouraged student to split their papers in half (the long way) and trade one of the halves with another student so they would have even more variety for their collage.

The finished projects were awesome!

Check out more of them on Artsonia - Washington Elementary and

Roosevelt Elementary

See how we took these artworks to a new level using iPads. We added words to our images. See my post "iPad Art - Words and Landscapes"