Watercolor Resist Trees inspired by Wolf Kahn

First and second grade artists looked at Wolf Kahn's paintings of trees.  Kahn is known for his work that combines Realism and Color Field (using large areas of color to create mood).  He primarily uses pastel and oil paints.  Wolf Kahn's trees demonstrate this union.  Wolf Kahn is a part time Vermont resident, so Waitsfield students can identify with his peaceful landscapes.  Thank you to The Clever Feather blog for the inspiration for this project.  

Students used single colors of oil pastel to draw the silhouettes of trees in a forest.  Next each student chose two analogous colors to paint their background.  They used the watercolor wash technique by painting their papers with water first, then observed the resist created by the oil pastels.  

Here are some of Wolf Kahn's tree paintings:

Here are the students' Wolf Kahn tree watercolor resist paintings: