Grade.Lesson: 4.8Print: BLOBS GROW IN BELOVED GARDENS “Lollipop Trees” This lesson refers to the architecture of the artist. There is a ppt. presentation on the Art Docent website for sharing with the class as well as the books Hundertwasser for Kids and Hundertwasser that can be found in the Art Docent supply closet.

Original size: VariedArtist: Friedensreich Hundertwasser December 15, 1928- February 19, 2000

Materials: White drawing paper Heavyweight white paper Decorative/fancy paper (for cutting out trees) Tempura Paints and brushes Disposable cups to put paint into toothpicks glass jars for water Colored Markers Black sharpies Scissors Glue sticks

Biography: Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000) was an Austrian artist (who later took on New Zealand citizenship). Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial, by the end of the 20th century. He is known for his use of colors, lines and his connection to architecture and environment. He prefers intensive, radiant colours and loves to place complementary colours next to one another to emphasize the double movement of the spiral, for instance. He also likes to use gold and silver, which he pastes onto the picture in a thin foil. Hundertwasser likes best to use paints he has pulverised or prepared himself, which he applies without mixing. Similarly, he prepares the priming ground himself; for prime coating, paint mixture and varnish he has developed various recipes of his own, all of which are designed to guarantee a long life for his pictures.

In many of his pictures he used oil, tempera and watercolour techniques in one

picture to achieve a contrasting effect between the matte and radiant parts of the picture.

Hundertwasser painted wherever he was, at home, in nature and on the road, in cafés and restaurants, on the train or on aeroplanes, in hotels or at the homes of friends or acquaintances he was visiting. He had no studio and did not paint at an easel, but instead spread the canvas or sheet of paper flat in front of him.

Disussion:Present the images of Hundertwasser’s work to the students.

What do you think about his work? Why? Evaluate the use of colors. Inquire if they can identify warm and cool

colors. What about the use of lines in his work? Is it realistic? Why?

Related Art Project:

To begin, speak about Hundertwasser’s love for lines and color, especially dark and bright lines.

1. The students must have a warm or cold foreground and the opposite background. The first thing they must do is paint their background heavyweight paper with tempura paints (choosing either cool or warm colors). They can use a toothpick to make designs in their paint (for example swirls or stripes). Now set this aside to dry.

2. On the white paper, have the students create a landscape outline (draw two wavy lines and make houses in between them). Draw with pencil. Model this for the kids on the white board.

3. Draw in some ‘funky’ architecture in the style of the artist. Structures should be free-form and fun. Encourage kids to make windows and traditional features in new and unexpected ways, such as lacking right angles.

4. Trace pencil in black sharpie. Have them work quickly so they don’t get tempted to start filling in and drawing black blobs! They need to be able to fill in the lines and shapes with nice colors.

5. When coloring in the houses with marker, use a WARM or COOL palette (same temperature as the tempura paint colors they chose).

6. Now cut out “lollipop trees” and stems out of interesting papers. Choose colors in the opposite palette for contrast (for example if they used cool colors in their background, they should try to choose warm colored paper for the trees in the foreground).

7. When the paint is dry, cut out the strip of houses and glue it in the middle of the page. Now glue lollipop trees to the foreground of the paper.

Additional resources:

http://www.hundertwasser.com/

Harvesting Dreams: Hundertwasser for Kids by Barbara Stieff

Vocabulary: Warm Colors, Cool Colors, foreground/background, architecture