Emily Carr On the Edge of Nowhere Grades 4-7 Students will explore drawing and painting techniques similar to those used by Emily Carr through: • Guided observation • Drawing and painting practice • Painting project • Viewing and discussing Emily Carr's work Students will build confidence in their ability to use these techniques to further develop their own works of art.

Introduction: This lesson has four easy to teach activities that may be presented in a single session or divided into multiple mini lessons. Lessons may be used in conjunction with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's exhibit, Emily Carr On the Edge of Nowhere; Emily Carr images from the Gallery's on-line collection at http://aggv.ca/collection; or images borrowed from the Gallery's art poster library at http://aggv.ca/education/teacher_resources. However, it is not necessary to use these specific resources. Rationale: Learning to draw and paint is a journey of discovery and practice. Emily Carr studied and practiced all her life to make art. She experimented with techniques to produce images that are distinctive to particular periods in her career. In this lesson, students will explore several of these painting and drawing techniques which will provide a basic understanding of how Emily Carr applied these techniques to her work.

Sketch of Trees, 1930 Oil on brown paper 22.5 x 15.1 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Gift of Mr. Peter Ohler 1973.070.001

Activity 1: Practice Seeing - Blind Contour Drawing (Approximately 15 minutes) Objective: By practicing blind contour drawing, students will learn to see the edge or contour of things. Materials: • 2’ of copper tubing or coloured electrical wire • One 6” x 6” card with a hole in the middle for each student • Pencils • Several sheets of multi-purpose drawing paper (11x17) per student Reference to Emily Carr: Emily Carr's writing is full of references to her use of careful observation of her subject matter. Cedars are terribly sensitive to change of time and light – sometimes they are bluish cold green, then they turn yellow warm-green – sometimes their boughs flop heavy and sometimes float, then they are fairy as ferns and then they droop, heavy as heartaches. from Tippett, Maria (1979). Emily Carr: A Biography

Background Information: Visual observation is an art skill required in order to draw well. Students teach their eyes to notice the edge of the line found in the objects they observe. They teach their hands to follow what their eyes see while drawing. Do not demonstrate or show works of art to students at this stage. It is important that they develop confidence with their own work, on its own merit, and not as compared to other work.

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Activity 1: Practice Seeing - Blind Contour Drawing (cont’d) Preparation: 1. Create an unfamiliar drawing subject by bending a piece of copper tubing or coloured electrical wire into a simple curving linear shape. Set it in the centre of the room where it is easily viewed by students. Bend new shapes as needed. 2. Provide each student with a 6” x 6” card with a hole in the middle. Students will place their pencil through the hole, grasping the pencil under the card. This creates a covering that keeps the tip of the pencil and the drawing out of view. 3. Provide each student with multiple sheets of drawing paper. (Multipurpose paper in letter or legal size). Lesson Introduction: Introduce the information from the Reference to Emily Carr and Background sections above to students. Instructions for Students: Look. Ask students to pick a point on the wire object to begin looking. With their eyes, they begin a slow journey around the contour or edge of the object. Tell students to move their eyes slowly, like a snail crawling as it makes its way around the object. Don't think about what the object is, just follow the line and what it does. Draw in the Air. Ask students to use their finger as an imaginary pencil. Looking only at the object in front of them and without looking at their hand, students begin to trace the outline of the object in their view. Draw on Paper. Using the card cover and pencil, instruct students to place their pencil on the paper and look only at the wire object in front of them. Tell students to find a point to begin and leading with their eyes, begin to draw when they know what the line does next. Draw again. Repeat the drawing with a newly created shape. Students may wish to make their own wire shapes to draw using any type of craft wire. Compare each of your drawings. Explain to students that they will always make mistakes when learning a new thing. It will feel odd to draw so differently. Practice this drawing method often and students will find their drawings will look more and more like the subject they are drawing. Number each drawing and compare.

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Activity 2: Drawing & Painting Practice - Contour and Gesture (Approximately 30 minutes) Objective: Students will move practice contour drawing and then move to more dynamic gesture drawing experimenting with pastels, pens and/or water colour paints. Materials: • One fresh cedar sprig for each student • Cedar boughs and branches • 16” x 20” sheets of paper • Oil or chalk pastels, felt pens or watercolour paint and large brushes for Activity Two – Part 2. Part 1 – Contour Drawing Continued Reference to Emily Carr: Emily Carr studied drawing in San Francisco and England. She drew things she loved best such as her pets. Emily also enjoyed working outdoors in the natural environment. Her first drawings and paintings were very detailed and she tried to reproduce the things she saw as realistically as possible. Preparation: 1. Provide each student with their own small piece of fresh cedar fractal – approximately 6 inches in length. Cedar is easily found growing as hedging material, in gardens or wild in most environments. 2. Collect and display cedar boughs and branches. (Each branch is made up of multiple cedar fractals). If possible, provide a variety of sizes. Older branches will droop much more than younger branches which have a more upright appearance. 3. Large sheets of art paper, approximately 16” x 20”. 4. Students may also want to use oil or chalk pastels, felt pens or watercolour paint and large brushes for Activity Two – Part 2.

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Activity 2: Drawing & Painting Practice - Contour and Gesture (cont’d) Lesson Introduction: Introduce the information in the Reference to Emily Carr section above. Instructions for Students: Observation Practice. Use the contour drawing technique with the card covering the hand. Use the cedar fractal as your subject. Cedar may be repositioned only when the outline of the entire piece is completed. Remind students to keep their eyes on the subject, not on the drawing and to complete the exercise without raising the pencil from the drawing paper. Drawing practice. Without hiding the hand, use the contour drawing technique as above. Try several times (at least three attempts) until you get an outline drawing of the cedar that you like. They may all be done on the same page or individual pages. The more you practice, the more you will find your drawings look like the cedar you are observing. Label drawings. Put number labels on your drawings in the order they were completed. We will display all your drawings to show how the drawings develop and change through practice. Gesture Drawing/Painting Reference to Emily Carr: Emily Carr's work changed when she studied in France. Her work departed from detailed outline drawings and realistic paintings to more expressive and representative works of art. While still employing observation, Carr's work began to depict qualities of movement. Her work reflected her response to the internal characteristics of her subject matter. She painted the personality and spirit of things around her. During this time Emily Carr worked with oil paint on paper, making hundreds of sketches. Many of these sketches and paintings depict trees of the west coast of British Columbia in a free and loose painting style. ...great sweeps and washes of colour, punctuated with seemingly careless dashes, flicks, and strokes... —Places of Their Own, Carr, O'Keefe, Kahlo Trees love to toss and sway; they make such happy noises. —Emily Carr 5

Activity 2: Drawing & Painting Practice - Contour and Gesture (cont’d) Art Background Information: Gesture drawing and painting is related to action drawing. The idea of gesture is to capture the energy, movement, excitement and expressive qualities of something (a person or an inanimate object). When we use gesture painting, we look beyond appearance to the unique spirit or the essence of an idea or subject. The work is often done very fast in an effort to capture our first response to seeing something. Art instructor, Nancy Doyle teaches gesture drawing using the following example: Think about a piece of ribbon tied into a bow. When you do a drawing of what the bow looks like, you will get just that – its appearance. But when you do a gesture drawing of the bow, you will get what the bow is DOING, its action. Your line will move, stop and go very quickly, around, up and down, getting the feel... Lesson Introduction: Present Emily Carr reference and art background information to students. Instructions for Students: Observe. Move the piece of cedar bough around, observing what happens to its shape. What happens if it is moved from side to side? Upside down? How does it bend? Squint with your eyes while moving the cedar. What do you see? Paint with your choice of pastels, markers or watercolours. Pick up your brush or pastel and quickly make marks to show what you observed in the cedar. Make your paintings large. Fill up the space on the paper. Make many different attempts at gesture painting. Try other materials. Try using the materials on their side, on the point. Stroke up, stroke down, stroke sideways. Make slow marks and fast marks. Make quiet and peaceful marks or curving and dancing marks. What do you imagine happens to the cedar in the rain? In the wind? In the snow? When it is hot? Imagine and paint.

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Activity 3: Painting Project - Seeing Trees and the Forest (Approximately 30 minutes) Objective: Students will choose their favourite sketch and using the techniques from above, they will paint a forest from memory. Materials: • 12” x 18” paper taped to a stiff surface such as cardboard or wooden board • Charcoal, pastels, paint, markers or crayon Reference to Emily Carr: Once Emily Carr had mastered careful observation and realistic drawings, she began a series of very expressive paintings. The way she painted became very interpretive. She painted energetically or calmly depending on how she felt about her subject. Many of her paintings were done in an abstract style. She painted the way she saw things and the way she wanted to paint. If the outcome was different than expected, she didn't worry about it. Art Background Information: Observational drawing helps artists to see edges, such as the sky shapes between branches in trees. Gesture drawing and painting helps to learn to see things in their entirety; seeing and capturing everything at once and avoiding outlines. Instructions for Students: Create artwork. Using your contour and gesture drawings as inspiration, depict a forest of trees from your memory. Choose your favourite technique and incorporate the technique into your painting. Think about showing the viewer the spirit and essential characteristics beyond appearance. Is your forest wild and windy, quiet and calm? Is it dark or is the sun shining through? Imagine how you might feel in your forest, relaxed or a bit afraid, inspired or …put those feelings into the gestures for your forest. Remind students. Emily Carr took a life time to paint the way she did at the end of her career. The way students approach a subject and the way they depict a subject, will change as they practice and incorporate the new techniques they are learning.

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Activity 4: Viewing & Discussing Emily Carr's Work Background Information for Teachers and Students: When students have finished their own paintings they are often interested in learning how other artists use the techniques they have been studying. Students will be well prepared to participate in a discussion about Emily Carr's works of art. Preparation: The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has Emily Carr resources available to teachers through the online collection, the Emily Carr exhibit at the Gallery and the art poster library for teachers. Letter size images for printing may also be accessed through the Gallery's website. The following discussion process is based upon Visual Thinking Strategies – a process used by many art museums and adapted for use in the Gallery's classroom programs. The approach allows students to examine art, to think about art, to make observations and to build understanding together. Lesson Introduction: • Display an Emily Carr image (preferably of the forest) for all students to see. (See appendices for examples) • Gather students in front of the displayed work so they have access to the picture. Facilitating tips for looking and responding to art: 1. Ask students to observe the image and then pose the question, What do you see? Or what is happening in this picture? 2. Ask students to provide evidence for their observation. What do you see that makes you say that? 3. Stimulate students to look further by asking, What else can you find? 4. Listen to what students say, paraphrase and point to areas in the painting that students are referring to. 5. There are no comments that are wrong or incorrect. 6. Thank students for their participation and point out what you learned from their discussion. Follow-up discussion: Now you can do the same with students’ work. Display all of the students' work from the three activities to help anyone viewing to see the progression of learning. 8

Appendix:

Fig. 1 Sketch of Trees, 1930 Oil on brown paper 22.5 x 15.1 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Gift of Mr. Peter Ohler 1973.070.001

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Fig. 2 Untitled (Sketch of Trees), 1930 Pencil on brown paper 15 x 22.8 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Gift of Mr. Peter Ohler 1973.069.001

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Fig. 3 Untitled Tree Study, 1911 Ink on paper 25.7 x 35.2 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Gift of Mrs. Edna Parnall 1988.010.001

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Fig. 4 Spring, 1936-37 Oil on paper 45.2 x 60.2 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Ruth Humphrey Estate 1984.050.001

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Fig. 5 Broom, Beacon Hill, 1937 Oil on paper 29.5 x 43.1 cm Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, The Thomas Gardiner Keir Bequest 1994.055.006 13

Fig. 6 Dancing Tree, 1938 Oil on paper 61.1 x 91.6 cm The Collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Gift of the Hon. Mark Kearley in memory of Mabel Florence Kearley 1968.212.001

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