Feast of Flowers Butterfly Paintings

 

To kick off the new year, students in Mrs. Woodlief's Art Adventures Class at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens explored the environment through art as they visited Jim Draper's Feast of Flowers, a collection of large scale paintings showcasing nine of Florida's ecosystems.

Students focused on one of Mr. Draper's large paintings of a Buckeye, a common Florida butterfly, as the inspiration for this months art project.  They studied the life cycle of the butterfly as well as learned how mother nature gave the buckeye special markings as camouflage to help protect it from predators.



Once students returned to the studio, they selected an image of a butterfly as inspiration.  After folding a piece of newsprint, they drew and cut out half of the butterfly, then used it as a template to trace on to their 8 x 10 inch canvas board. This technique provided for perfectly symmetrical butterflies allowing every student to experience success! 


 

After studying the intricate designs on the wings, they began painting the insect's details with acrylic paint on canvas boards. Students worked at artists easels to create beautifully symmetrical butterfly paintings. Each student felt successful as they showed their paintings to their families.