Art Masterpiece: Ernest Leonard Blumenschein, “The Lake”

Keywords: line, color palette, light and shadow, contrast

Grade: 4th – 6th (recommended)

Activity: watercolor landscape painting (with metallic watercolor highlights)

Meet the Artist:

 Ernest Blumenschein was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Dayton, Ohio where he initially trained as a violinist. Blumenschein was a tremendously talented musician, supporting himself by playing first violin in the New York Symphony. Nonetheless, he was drawn to art and studied in New York City and Paris.  In 1897 during a Western trip, Blumenschein’s horse-drawn wagon threw a wheel and he carried the wheel to the nearest town for repairs. That town was Taos, in the territory of New Mexico. Struck by the sweeping landscapes and the diverse Native American, Spanish-American, and American cultures in the region, Blumenschein determined then and there to work as a painter.  Blumenschein was well known as an illustrator for popular magazines and books, including Jack London’s first book, Love of Life. This led to his working with other famous writers such as Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, and Joseph Conrad. During this time he also met a painter named Mary Shepard Greene, who was fairly prominent in Paris at the time. She exhibited widely, and had won medals at the Paris salons. Ernest Blumenschein and Greene married in 1905, to the consternation of her friends, who thought that a prominent painter should not be marrying an illustrator, and that it would damage Greene’s career. In fact, both of their careers went on fine.  Blumenschein was a co-founder of the Taos Society of Artists and part of the Taos Art Colony. In 1898, the Taos art colony was an important part of the life of the town. The style of painting of the Taos painters was to decisively influence the perceptions that the wider world came to have of the American Southwest, and specifically, of the Pueblo and Navajo Indian people.  Ernest Blumenschein remained in Taos for the rest of his life, though at one point he began to spend winters in Albuquerque, where it was not quite as cold. Even when he was eighty years old, he still labored as diligently over his canvases as he ever had. When he died in 1960, he was the most famous resident of Taos, and six years later the Ernest L. Blumenschein home was designated as a National Historic Landmark

Art of the American Southwest:

The American Southwest is a land of contrasts and contradictions. Home to six unique geological regions (Rocky Mountains, Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range, Snake River Plain, Coastal Province, and Sierra Madre Mountains) that include four deserts (Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan), its landscape, plant life, and animal life vary as much as its people.

Many early artists began their journeys west as official artists of government surveys or private expeditions. They filled sketchbooks with images that they used back east in their studios to combine accurate geographical details with romanticized interpretations of the landscape. Others worked outdoors to capture the immediate psychological effects of the Southwest’s grander.

About the Painting

Definitions:  Line -- A line is an identifiable path created by a point moving in space. It may be two dimensional, like a pencil mark on a paper or it may be three dimensional (like a wire) or implied (like the edge of a shape or form.) Often a line is a outline, contour or silhouette. A line can vary in width, direction, and length. Lines can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, straight or curved, thick or thin. They lead your eye around the composition and can communicate information through their character and direction.  Light and shadow – in this painting, we are literally looking at the sunlight – where the light comes from and where it falls and what it illuminates. Where the sunlight doesn’t touch (or isn’t reflected) lies in shadow.  Contrast -- refers to differences in color, color value (the lightness and darkness of a color), texture, shapes and other elements. Contrast creates visual excitement and adds interest to a work.

Possible Questions: Look and discuss the painting “The Lake.” For example:

Encourage students to describe the work of art: “What do you see? What time of day is it?”

(Color) Describe the palette, or the colors that Blumenschein used to make this painting. Why do you think he used these colors? How do they make you feel? Explain that when an artist is painting something that lies in a shadow, he will use a darker value and a cool hue. When an artist paints something that is in the light, he will use a lighter value and a warm hue. For example, the same green grass lawn may be painted a light yellowish-green in the sunlight, and a dark bluish-green in the shade.

Blumenshein used color and the application of pain as tools to express the dramatic beauty of the Southwest. Rather than painstakingly studying variations in color on the canyon walls, he applied bold blocks of colors that are distinctive to the area.

(Line) Look at the lines created by the paint and the artist’s brush. Which words would you use to describe them – straight or swirly? Are there horizontal (side-to-side), vertical (up-and-down), or diagonal (sideways) lines? What effects do these lines give to the image?

Lines that are curved suggest movement; straight lines suggest stillness. What sorts of things are moving in this painting? (The waves on the lake, the fisherman’s line, the clouds.) What sorts of things are still in this painting? (The land where the lake and mountains meet.) Blumenschein suggests high winds with thickly applied paint, swirling clouds, and waves breaking on the lake’s surface.

(Contrast, light and shadow) Have the students identify where the light source is in this painting. (The sun is behind the mountain on the left.) How can they tell? (The sunlight is hitting the side of the hill on the right the most; the hill on the left is more in shadow. The sun is setting, but still high enough to hit the tops of the mountains in the background, causing them to be bright white.)

Activity: Watercolor landscape

Materials needed:  8”X10” watercolor paper (pre-cut this before class)  10”X12” construction paper (for mounting)  Watercolors  Metallic watercolors (gold, silver, copper, bronze) or metallic pens  Tap water  Plastic containers  Paint brushes  Paper towels  Newsprint (to cover desks)

** Troubleshooting Thoughts** Cover the kids’ desks with newspaper and pre-fill a plastic container with water, one per student or sometimes two students can share.

Process: 1. Have the class think about a landscape they would like to paint. It doesn’t have to be a lake, but can be mountains, deserts, or ocean. Blumenschein painted the American Southwest, but they can choose anything. Encourage them to be creative in their choice. 2. Have the students think about what their light source will be – the sun or the moon – and where it will be in their painting. Is it behind the painter’s back so it won’t be pictured in their painting? Is it low on the horizon? Is it behind a tree or mountain? Is it high noon? 3. Now knowing where their light source is, have the children think about what images in their painting will be brightly lit, and which ones will lie in shadows. 4. Distribute the materials. If the students feel more comfortable penciling a drawing first, that is fine, but have them watch their time. Then have them paint their landscape. Don’t forget the sky too. 5. When the students are done with their painting, have them think carefully about which areas of their painting would be brightly lit. Using the metallic paints (or markers), have them add bright highlights in their landscape where the light hits the brightest. Blumenschein painted bright white tops to his waves and mountaintops, and warm golden highlights to the fisherman and boats, as well as the hillside. 6. Make sure they write their name and title their artwork. Hang when dry.

“The Lake” Ernest Leonard Blumenschein (1874 – 1960) Today in Art Masterpiece we discussed American artist Ernest Blumenschein. He became captivated by the American Southwest and moved to Taos, New Mexico where he co-founded the Taos Society of Artists. We used Blumenschein’s painting “The Lake” to discuss color palette, contrast, line, light and shadow. The students then created their own watercolor landscape painting, utilizing bright metallic highlights to illustrate where the light hits.