K-2 Activities

These activities for Marine Art were updated in late 2008 and early 2009, along with the Learning Results.

Ideas to try....

Arts
 
Try different kinds of paint: oil, watercolor, acrylic, finger paints, others.
Try different drawing media:  pencil, crayon, ink, charcoal, others.
Use watercolors to add color to a black and white image of a ship painting.
Understand proportions, drawing different sailing vessel rigs, then add color.
Paint your idea of the ocean, the sky, clouds: Where is the sunlight? Where is the wind?
Paint a ship from a photograph.
Using solid color papers, such as light blue, white, dark blue, green, brown, and white, make a collage of a sailing ship portrait.

History

Compare paintings by American and Chinese artists. Do you think their styles look different? 

Look at maritime paintings with the senses in mind. How would it feel to be on the deck of this vessel? What would you hear, smell, and see?  How does the artist make the viewer experience motion through his painting of water, sails, clouds, etc?  Look for consistency or inconsistency in wind direction as seen in sails and flags.  Look for shadows—the museum has a painting with an obviously misplaced mast reflection. Try experimenting with a ship model and a light source.

Create a port painting by painting in common backgrounds on several sheets of paper, then adding a portrait of a boat (or person). 

Math

Using a ship portrait, measure the vessel’s length and mast height in the picture. Find out how these measurements compare to the real length and height of the vessel and masts. Is the painting in proportion?

Science and Technology

Visit the shore of a body of water, or think about water you have seen. What makes water look different in color on different days and in different weather condition?

English Language Arts

Examine pictures of vessels from different eras, and compare and contrast.  Write a story based on a painting, or read/listen to a story with a maritime theme and create a painting based on the images evoked by the story.