Drawing From Nature: Charles Burchfield Inspires Young Artists
Sep 16, 2010
A Whitney educator leads a children’s drawing workshop exploring the artistic process of Charles Burchfield, September 2010. Photograph by Alix Finkelstein
Last Saturday, the late summer blooms of the High Line and the watercolors of Charles Burchfield were the source of inspiration for the Whitney’s family program, “Drawing From Nature,” a workshop for some of the museum’s youngest enthusiasts to enjoy plein air sketching while strolling through the park’s aerial gardens. Burchfield’s work is currently on view at the Whitney.
Burchfield loved to work outside and his home in upstate New York gave the artist immediate access to the natural world that was the primary subject of his large-scale watercolors. As a child, Burchfield drew the plants and trees surrounding his family’s home, but his interest in nature grew to encompass more than just the descriptive properties of specimens.
To facilitate the children’s understanding of Burchfield’s art, Whitney educators led the participants through the greenery while sharing stories about Burchfield’s working methods and his imaginative interpretation of his surroundings. After providing paper, pencils, and view finders, one Museum educator asked her participants to identify both “city things” and “things from nature” visible from the High Line. The educator also shared an image of Burchfield’s painting, The Insect Chorus and explained how the artist’s vibrating lines are intended to convey the chirping of crickets or the sound of cicadas.
A drawing by one of the workshop’s participants, September 2010. Photograph by Alix Finkelstein
The Museum educators encouraged the participants to pay attention not only to what could be seen from the High Line, but also what could be heard. When one group stopped to sketch, it was illuminating to see how intuitively the children understood Burchfield’s interest in converting sound into visual imagery. Hearing the noise of the city life that drifted upward to the High Line, some children drew heavy wavy lines for the noise of the motorcycle engines while others quickly sketched a veritable traffic jam of cars and taxis. Viewfinders were provided to help the children “frame” a vista for their sketches and the results were surprising and satisfying. “Some drew what they saw, while others created their own landscape,” observed an educator.
By Alix Finkelstein, Education Intern