A few years ago, I had the daughter of the local florist in my art class. On Meet the Teacher Night, she offered her help, like most parents do. Four years later, when I had her youngest daughter in my class, I finally took her up on her offer. I made this decision after reading one of her social media posts, which had a photo of a floral design and the caption, “Loving ALL this texture!” She was speaking my language. I came to the realization that her profession uses all the same elements of art that I have been teaching my students for years.
Left: Karoline G., flower still life, grade eight. Right: Sage H., flower still life, grade eight.Left: Local florist Amber Raymond (right) and her assistant Kayla visit the art room. Right: Karoline works from a gridded photo of the original flower bouquet.
Now that I had a direct line with a community artist, I invited her to come speak to my class to demonstrate creating a bouquet and have students create a watercolor study based on the arrangement. What happened in my class was more than a demonstration; it was an unexpected lesson in science, art, and life.
A Florist Visits the Art Room
Mrs. Raymond, owner of Willow Blu Florist and Gifts, and her assistant Kayla, spoke to my seventh- and eighth-grade art classes. She came to class with buckets of flowers, tools, and a couple of vases. She spoke to students about her love of art and how she had aspired to be an artist while going through school. Although her first passions were painting and interior design, the choices she made brought her where she is today—a successful business owner and floral designer.
As she spoke with students, she walked them through the steps of creating an arrangement. This included naming and identifying the flowers she brought, emphasizing the importance of cleaning the stems and leaves before adding them to the vase, and creating the overall composition using flower height and texture. She spoke about the negative space in the arrangement and added the last of the small flowers to fill up empty spaces. While talking about each flower, she incorporated the elements of art by describing the lines, colors, textures, and space of the arrangement.
Preparing for Drawing
After the arrangement was finished, students took photographs of the flowers from various angles and views. I emailed several images of the arrangement to students in case some of them didn’t have access to a camera to capture their own images.
I instructed students to prepare their paper for a grid drawing by creating a 3" (7.5 cm) grid on 9 x 12" (23 x 30 cm) watercolor paper. They uploaded the images to their school computers and imported them into Google Drawings, and they adjusted the page and image sizes to fit their 9 x 12" paper. Next, they created grid lines on the digital image to match the grid lines on their paper. Now students were ready to sketch the arrangement using their own images.
Still-Life Challenges
Students struggled with drawing the still life realistically. They had practiced a grid drawing prior to the floral still life, but that assignment was much easier than this one. I reassured them that this was their interpretation of the flowers. The grid method helped students with shapes and proportions, but they had to try their best to create the flower drawing, which indeed was challenging.
Students were asked to incorporate both the vase and the table on which it sat, as well as a background color of their choice. When students completed the drawing of the arrangement, they added watercolor. The last step was adding ink for details, which was optional. I also required students to email me the reference image they used so I could compare it to their painting when assessing their finished project.
Reflection
When I asked Mrs. Raymond to come and speak to my class, I wanted students to see that art is all around us. It’s one thing to repeat that sentence in your classroom, but another thing to see it in practice. I learned that community members can contribute to the learning experience of my students in unexpected ways. It took me four years to realize that I could accept this offer from this parent. I hope it won’t take that long next time an opportunity knocks.
Courtney Lipscomb is an art teacher at Florence Middle School in Florence, Missouri. cou203@rcsd.ms
National Standard
Creating: Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
This issue highlights several ways in which art teachers have integrated collaboration into their teaching practice, such as providing students with opportunities to problem-solve and work together throughout the year, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a tile installation symbolizing them, inviting a local florist to teach an art lesson, collaborating with an artist to create an outdoor installation using materials reclaimed from the ocean, and more.
