Hale Woodruff was a Black artist and educator in Atlanta, Georgia. He led the art department at Atlanta University, a historically Black university. While he was a teacher there, he brought his students out of the classroom to paint outdoor scenes of Georgia. He named this group the Painter’s Guild, inspired by techniques he learned in Europe. What do you notice about the landscape shown in this painting? Does it remind you of somewhere you’ve been?
Hale Woodruff (American, 1900 – 1980), “Georgia Landscape,” ca. 1935 – 38. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
The Painter’s Guild helped Woodruff and his students show how hard life was for the Black community during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a period when many people in the US lost their money, jobs and sometimes homes. Georgia’s farmers also experienced a terrible drought. Woodruff’s students said he was teaching them how to use their art to let people know what life was like for poor Black people and create change for their community. What is something you would like to change about your community? How would you express that using art?
In this activity, you’ll make a layered paper work of art based on a landscape you observe in your community.
For this activity you will need:
- oil pastels or crayons
- colored paper
- scissors
- glue
To make your landscape:
- Find a landscape in your community or your imagination. Observe the plants, sky and other details. What patterns or shapes do you notice? What combinations of lines create tree branches or bushes?
- Use oil pastels or crayons to draw repeated lines or shapes on colored paper to create the patterns you saw. You might draw different patterns to represent parts of your landscape.
- What kinds of lines and colors does Woodruff use to show different types of trees and bushes?
- Cut out your designs. Create different shapes for the trees, bushes, and other parts of the landscape.
- Arrange your cut-outs on a separate sheet of paper to create your landscape. Once you have your final design, glue them into place.
- Add details and draw textures onto the spaces in between the layers of paper and the sky. Think about what else you might find in your landscape. What is the weather like? What animals might you find there?