Finished Northern Lights Painting from Demo for Grade One Students

Here is the finished painting!  A few things to tell you......

I used a light blue paint and put snow on the trees.  I put some mountains in the background along the horizon.  Also some rocks in the foreground. AND....STARS!  I use Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink  and White dots to make the stars in the night sky.  

I am hoping that I will be able to put your paintings on my blog when you are done

so everyone can see your paintings as well. 

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PAINTINGS!

8X10 

Aurora Borealis Demonstration

Acrylic on Canvas

Colours for Northern Lights

 Stay Wet Palette and Brushes

 Outside the Cabin

And.... Meet Chevy .... she is waiting to go for her walk :) 

Northern Lights Painting Demos for Grade One Students

This is a very simple demonstration ( in five parts) of how to paint the Northern Lights.

We've seen them a lot lately in our night skies because when it gets very cold outside the skies get very clear and you can see the stars and the lights too!  I told you in the video it was -34 this morning.  I cannot walk Chevy for very long when it is this cold because her little feet get very cold!

You will notice that I have not put too many details in the painting ..... You can use your imagination to decide what you put under your sky!  In Part 4: I show you that I put in a horizon line and some water and a row of trees with their reflection.  You may choose to put a row of big spruce trees or some mountains.  That is the BEAUTY of painting.... you get to decide! 

Wishing you the very best with yours :) 

In the next post you will see the finished painting.

Part One:  Set Up and Materials

Part 2: Working on the Sky

Part 3: More On the Sky

          Part 4: Adding Some Water & Horizon Line           

                    

Part 5: Putting in Trees and Reflection

For The Children's School Grade One Class in La Jolla California, Part 1

Hello from the Artist! to the Students of the Grade One Class at the Children's School!

Painting.... creating art has been something I have done since I was younger than you!  I remember being 5 years old and colouring with crayons in a book.   I felt a sense of frustration when I was colouring because the colours I wanted to create were not in the box!  I took the crayons and pressed very hard to make the colours very vivid and then the  people ... well!  I had to create the colour of their skin. This involved using the white crayon the orange crayon, red crayon and brown and blending all these crayon colours together.  I used the crayons like oil pastels. My mother watched in fascination as I did this.
As the years continued, I acquired some paints and I was always drawing, colouring & painting.  In high school.  I was lucky enough to be able to have a wonderful art department at my school  and I studied art and art history.

I have always enjoyed mixing colours and in particular deep vibrant  and bright colours -they are a big part of my painting today. Colour enables me to create a sense of drama, mood and to evoke emotion.  I also like the play of light and dark in a painting as well.  This is the reason I really LOVE to  paint the Northern Lights and Sunsets. They make me feel so happy!

A Larger Northern Lights Painting 24x24 inches 

Right now in the Yukon we are still very much in the midst of winter.  Today it is - 25 degrees celsius  and there is a bitterly cold wind blowing.    I have my friend's little dog with me that I am looking after for a couple of months while she is in Florida!  Lucky her :)  Chevy and I go for a walk daily and when we come back I usually paint.  It is important that we both get outside  for a bit.  The cabin is not really big and you can get cabin fever if you are in for too long without going out!

I have a attached a little video as an introduction to the students of The Children's School in La Jolla California and a picture of some of the work I have been painting in the last few weeks in preparation for the upcoming summer season. Things open up in the summer months here in the northern part of the world. We have winter tourism that is growing especially around the Northern Lights, lots of people come from Japan to see the lights but in the summer lots of visitors fly from Europe and the U.S. Many travel the Alaska highway to come to the Yukon and go to Alaska.  We are known as the land of the Midnight Sun!  Your teacher can explain this to you :)

Smaller Paintings from the last few Weeks

What the Yukon Summer looks like. The fireweed in this painting 

is what grows after a fire has burned in an area. A beautiful purple flower. It is the official flower of the Yukon Territory.