Claude Clark Sr. was born in Georgia in 1915. When he was a kid, his family moved to Philadelphia as part of the Great Migration. The Great Migration occurred when millions of Black Americans moved out of the South to try to escape racism and find better lives for their families in cities in the North and West. Clark studied art at the Pennsylvania Museum and School for Industrial Arts and became a painter, printmaker and art teacher. He wanted to show stories from African American culture and life. Many of his paintings create a feeling or emotion. How do you feel when you look at “Spring Flowers”?
Color and layers of paint are important parts of all Clark’s paintings. He used bright colors and applied lots of paint to show movement and create heavy textures. Take a closer look at this painting. How many different colors did he use? Does the painting look rough or smooth? If you could touch “Spring Flowers,” what word would you use to describe the texture?
Claude Clark Sr. (American, 1915 – 2001), “Spring Flowers,” 1945. Oil on board, 24 3/8 × 18 15/16 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2012.116.
In this activity, you’ll recycle plastic forks to add texture in your own spring flower painting.
For this activity you will need:
- paper
- paint
- a paper plate
- recycled plastic forks
- a paintbrush
To make your spring flower painting:
- Paint a group of stems for the flowers. Try making the stems different heights and adding leaves for each one. How can you make each stem unique?
- Carefully smoosh a plastic fork into the paint. Make sure the entire bottom of the fork is covered. Tip: have one fork for each color.
- Once it is covered in paint, press the fork onto the paper at the tip of a stem. Rock the fork so all the tines touch the paper. Quickly pick up the fork — the paint that remains is the flower!
- Add more flowers. Try covering a fork with a lot of paint and pressing it onto the paper. Then try creating multiple fork flowers by pressing the same fork down without adding more paint. How does this change the texture of the painting?
- Repeat until each of your stems has a flower.