Have you ever noticed the night sky during a winter’s snowfall? It is a stunning mixture of purple, magenta and blue. First grade artists created winter landscapes using these colors to illustrate the beauty of the winter sky.

We learned about the art of Barron Krody, a local Long Island landscape painter who paints on an orange background. Why? Because painting on a background that compliments the top layer of paint helps make the colors really POP! and catches the viewers eye.

First grade artists began by mixing a periwinkle blue for the foreground of snow in their landscape. They then added a bit of magenta which changed the blue into a purple and painted the sky over the ground covering the entire sheet of orange colored paper.

During the next art class, students learned about the branching patterns found in trees. We discovered that every tree starts off with one strong base: the trunk, and then branches out and up into many smaller parts. Every part of the tree, no matter how small or thin, can be traced back to its core, the trunk. Students tore brown paper into strips of various lengths and widths and collaged them in branching patterns over their painted background to form a landscape of bare, winter trees.

Some students choose to illustrate depth of field by collaging smaller trees in the background, making them seem far off in the distance.

Others incorporated glitter to help illustrate a snow storm in action.

Some students were eager to collage the infamous winter art form: Snowmen and Snowomen!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (just a little)