Third Grade
Dali Long-legged birds
Salvador Dali was an artist from Spain. He lived from 1904-1989. He is best known for his creative artworks in a style called Surrealism. He was also a very creative person. He had a strong and colorful personality and he liked to be in the public eye. As a child he would get in trouble for daydreaming in school, but even as an adult he was still a highly imaginative person. He sometimes did crazy things in public to get attention, like standing in a bucket of water while giving a talk, or jumping up and down to get attention. He also loved very extravagant and luxurious things.
Dali was not only a painter, but he also worked in film, sculpture and photography. Some of his images are a bit bizarre and even shocking. But others are fun and interesting, or just plain weird. This is a common trait in Surrealist artworks. Surrealism was about recreating in art the strange things from your dreams.
|
Think about how sometimes crazy things can happen in your dreams that can't happen in real life. Surrealists believed that dreams and random thoughts could help us understand greater truths about life. Dali's most famous painting has melting clocks in a curious landscape. It is called "The Persistence of Memory." He said he thought about making this picture after he saw some melting cheese. Isn't that funny?
You may have seen this picture before, or you may have even seen one of many silly copies of it in your games or favorite shows, like the images below!
The painting we are going to be inspired by today in our art project is one of some very long-legged elephants with ancient Egyptian obelisks on their back: "The Elephants," from 1948. Elephants are a recurring animal in Dali's paintings. It is thought that like the melting clocks (in the above painting) which symbolize a distortion of time, these elephants symbolize a distortion of space, because elephants are normally very big and heavy animals, but here have such long spindly legs that they take up very little visual space. Isn't it a fun and dreamlike image? Ask the children what else they notice in the picture (perhaps the gradation of color in the sky - why is it reds and yellows instead of blues? what are the tiny figures on the ground? is one an angel? why are their shadows so long?). There are no right or wrong answers here--just let the children observe and speculate.
Dali may use elephants in this picture, but he used lots of other animals in other pictures too, like the ants and flies or the cats above. Today we will be drawing birds, but with the impossibly long legs of the elephants from this painting.
Art Project
Prep - 30 minutes (includes making sample)
Materials
-18 x 24 white paper cut in half length wise ( 9 x 24) 2 pieces per student
-black Sharpies ( kept in office)
-water color palettes (1 per 2 students)
-small water containers to share
-small paint brushes (for bird bodies)
-medium paint brushes (for background, if time allows) - or crayons for the background instead
Lesson
1. Talk to students about the art mentioned above. Go over questions above during class discussion.
2. Show students your sample.
3. Talk about steps you took to make your art project, i.e. drew 2-3 long leg birds with pencil, traced over with Sharpie, painted birds with water color.
4. Talk about different features on a bird: body, wings, beak, tail feathers, eyes, etc.
5. If time allows they can add background details: a sunset like the Dali image that goes from red to orange to yellow, or some grass below, a blue sky, etc. Alternatively, crayons can be used for the background instead of watercolors.
Project
1. Pass out paper to students and have them put their name on the back.
2. Have students draw their long legged birds.
3. Pass out water color palettes and water containers, paint brushes too! Remind students not to use too much water and that too much water will cause paper to tear.
4. Have students finish up painting and then carefully create a background with their crayons or more watercolors.
Materials
-18 x 24 white paper cut in half length wise ( 9 x 24) 2 pieces per student
-black Sharpies ( kept in office)
-water color palettes (1 per 2 students)
-small water containers to share
-small paint brushes (for bird bodies)
-medium paint brushes (for background, if time allows) - or crayons for the background instead
Lesson
1. Talk to students about the art mentioned above. Go over questions above during class discussion.
2. Show students your sample.
3. Talk about steps you took to make your art project, i.e. drew 2-3 long leg birds with pencil, traced over with Sharpie, painted birds with water color.
4. Talk about different features on a bird: body, wings, beak, tail feathers, eyes, etc.
5. If time allows they can add background details: a sunset like the Dali image that goes from red to orange to yellow, or some grass below, a blue sky, etc. Alternatively, crayons can be used for the background instead of watercolors.
Project
1. Pass out paper to students and have them put their name on the back.
2. Have students draw their long legged birds.
3. Pass out water color palettes and water containers, paint brushes too! Remind students not to use too much water and that too much water will cause paper to tear.
4. Have students finish up painting and then carefully create a background with their crayons or more watercolors.
Citations:
- Philippe Halsman, Dali's Mustache. Wikiart.org, https://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/salvador-dali.jpg!Portrait.jpg
- Philippe Halsman, Dalí Atomicus. en.wikipedia.org,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD#/media/File:Salvador_Dali_A_(Dali_Atomicus)_09633u.jpg
- Google: Unknown, Salvador Dali’s Birthday (Google Doodle). google-doodles.fandom.com, https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/google-doodles/images/a/a0/Dali.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/302?cb=20181223165042
- Cats: Svetlana Petrova and Zarathustra the Cat, Salvador Dali, The Purrsistence of Cats’ Meowmory. shop.fatcatart.com, https://shop.fatcatart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Dali-The-Persistence-of-Memory-cat-w-625.jpg
- Cookie Monster: Joel Schick, Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Cookies. Familygorilla.com, http://www.familygorilla.com/images/ss_art_persistence.jpg
- Salvador Dali, The Elephants. en.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephants#/media/File:Dali_Elephants.jpg