Grade 3/4 Ted Harrison Project

Fall 2010 / In the Style of Ted Harrison

I showed the students some examples of Ted Harrison’s work,  the way he divides the areas and shapes in his paintings, simplifying elements.  We then went onto a discussion about perspective and relative size according to distance:  foreground, middle ground, and background.

We set the project as a Canadian winter scene, and the kids enjoyed coming up with their own ideas about what that might look like.  There was some frustration in the process, as some students tried for finer detail than the crayons and oil pastels would allow.  The skies were rendered in cut paper to contrast the other materials.

This project was very popular with the class – the teacher even had smaller colour copies made onto cardstock, and the class sold packages of the cards at Christmas as a fundraiser!