Tree of Life

Every so often we learn about a master artist and create art in that artist's style. 


This week we learned about the Austrian symbolist artist Gustav Klimt and his intriguing 1909 painting, The Tree of Life. 

The Tree of Life, by Gustav Klimt

We observed not only the interesting, never-ending  swirly branches but also the odd little symbols, shapes, and critters hidden within the painting. 










To create our own Tree of Life, we first moistened our background paper with clear water and covered it with torn tissue paper - the kind that bleeds.  Then we dried the art using blow dryers until the tissue bits blew away and left all of these lovely colors and textures!






Next we painted our trees over our backgrounds with thick black tempera paint, using slightly thinner paint for the tinier swirley limbs. 

We added some sparkle in the form of glitter paint, either to the tree, the background, or both.

As an option, artists then added tiny objects, cutouts, stickers, and 'bling' (sequins) within the branches of their trees. 

You have to look carefully to see them, and some are very surprising!

Tree of Life, by McKenna, age 11 
acrylic and found objects on 11" x 14" canvas panel