TROPICAL LANDSCAPES

Bakehouse Arts
May 4, 2020
2 min read

YOU WILL NEED…

Packaging Papers from your recycling box

Paint and brushes

Glue

Tissue Paper (optional)

Look at these tropical landscapes by Paul Gauguin and Peter Doig.

What can you see in the foreground, middle ground and background? What do you notice about the sizes of objects in the distance and up close?

Look at the way these artists simplify objects like bushes and trees into simple shapes.

LET'S MAKE OUR OWN!

Step One: Materials

Find some excess packaging – as many different types as you can. See if you can find some with interesting textures.

Step Two: Blue Sky

Choose one of the papers to use as your background. Grab some paints and mix up some different shades of colour for your sky. Try making a dark, medium and light tone to add variety to your sky. Get painting and leave to dry…

Step Three: Background Shapes

Rip some background shapes out of some of your papers, can you find some with texture? Use a brush or a roller to add some colour to them. We tried to use different tones of green colours to add light and dark areas as you would find in nature.

Step Four: Composition

When your shapes and background are dry, experiment with laying them down in different ways until you are happy with the way it looks.

Step Five: Plants and Trees

Research tropical trees and plants for inspiration – there are some amazing species! The aim is to simplify them when you paint them, for example a tree trunk can become one stroke of a thick brush, the palm tree fronds one shape in different colours… experiment, have fun!

Step Six: Add features

Cut out your trees and plants and add some other features to your landscape. Perhaps a river, waterfall or path… try using tissue paper to add a different texture and make sure that your river/path starts narrower in the distance and gets wider as it moves into the foreground.

Step Seven: Stick it down

Stick your trees and plants to your tropical scene and see how your tropical landscape emerges!

More Ideas!

Other Landscapes

What other landscapes could you create in a similar way? How about a snowy scene…mountains, snow, alpine trees. A desert scene would be great: blue sky, sand dunes, cacti, desert snakes…

What other landscapes can you think of? I would love to see! Don’t forget the weather doesn’t always have to be sunny, stormy weather is fun to do, dark, moody skies, blowing trees….

Other Styles

The Tate Website has a great section for kids. Look at David Hockney and J.M.W Tur ner

for 2 other very different ways of painting landscapes. Which artist’s work do you like the best and why?

BAKEHOUSE ARTS