Winter Harbor by Henry Gasser: Analyzing the Artist's Message & Technique

1. Art smart – 4th grade Winter harbor by henry gasser

2. Winter harbor by henry gasser • What is the artist communicating with this work? • What appears to be important? (harbor village, trees, boats, water, hillside?) • What time of year is it? How do you know? • What time of day is it? What clues do you base your answer on? • Why are there a lot of human made things, but no people? Is it real or imaginary? • How does the artist lead your eye through the composition? If you could walk into this scene where would you go? • If you could use one word to describe this painting, what would it be? • If the same scene were painted during another season, how would the mood change?

3. Henry gasser (1909-1981) • American artist born in Newark, New Jersey • Studied art in New York at 2 different schools • Became the Director of one of the schools (Newark school of Fine & Industrial Art) at age 37 • Began his career as a lecturer/demonstrator of painting at age 45 • Author of several books on technical aspects of painting • Successful career both in U.S. and abroad • Many awards, including election to the Royal Society of Arts in 1957 • Known for oils and watercolor, painted American coastal life in a solid, realistic style • Died at age 72

4. Works by henry gasser

5. the lightness or darkness of a color • Dark colors in a composition suggest a night or interior scene. • Also, the convey a sense of mystery or foreboding. • Light colors often describe a light source or reflected light. • VALUE: INTENSITY: the purity or strength of a color • Bright colors are undiluted and often associated with positive energy and heightened emotions. • Dull colors have been diluted by mixing with other colors and create a sedate or serious mood. • A pure color plus white is known as TINT. • A pure color plus black is known as TONE. • Shadows actually have both value and color. • Look for examples in print. • Artists use value & intensity to create moods & feelings in their compositions.

6. Value HUE = COLOR

7. Intensity

8. What’s the difference betweenvalue & Intensity? • The INTENSITY of the pure color blue is very bright. • Add some other color to it and it becomes less bright or less intense. • As you use a color, say, blue... you can add its complement to dull it down and it looks natural. That’s orange-just a little to your blue. See what happens… • The VALUE is how much dark or light, white and black is in the color. • Looking at a value scale it shows the darkest dark value on one end, gradually getting more light-adding white until you record your perception of the highest value- the lightest area of your drawing composition. Intensity is the pureness of the color without adding black or white. You use complement of color to adjust intensity.

9. Lesson: Value design Varying the value range in a work of art adds depth and interest. • Supplies (25 students): • 25 sheets watercolor paper (9x12 or 12x18) • 25 pencils • 25 rulers • 25 brushes (medium width, approx. ½ inch) • Tempera paints (red, yellow, blue, black, white) • Bowls for paint • Water cups for rinsing Students divide up the space over the entire paper by using a pencil and a ruler to create straight edged shapes (some self-contained some bleeding off the edges) OR a single pencil line in a bold swirling “scribble” (some shapes contained, some off the edge). Provide each student with two containers of the same primary color and one contain each of white & black paint. Students fill in their shape design with tints and tones of their primary color. (color + white= tint, color + black=tone). Begin by using pure color in areas of choice. Show students how to add a small amount of white to change the tint of their color. Continue to add white paint, paint a few areas and add more white. Using second container of primary color, add a small amount of black to create a tone… and so on, until paper is filled.