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Lesson Plan Image

Painting With Gravity

Students will learn about artist Morris Louis and create a painting in his style which relies on gravity to move the paint.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Morris Louis (1912-1962) was an American painter and an early exponent of Color Field painting. This is an abstract style characterized by large fields of flat, solid color spread across a canvas. He was inspired by a visit to the studio of Helen Frankenthaler, an artist who played a significant role in the development of color field painting, to build on  this technique using gravity to guide the paint. He would thin his paint and pour it onto a canvas, controlling the flow of the colors by moving the canvas. Have students learn more about his works and contributions to the field and view some of his paintings. Suggestions include "Iris" (1954), "Beth Chaf" (1959),  "Where" (1960), "Bellatrix" (1961), or any others.

  • Step 2

    Have students create their own work inspired by the style of Morris Louis. They will add a lot of water to make their watercolors very wet and apply it to the top of a piece of paper. Then they will move the paper to let gravity guide the flow. 

  • Step 3

    When their work is dry have them present it to the class and discuss how this technique affected their art. How did letting gravity guide the art create a different representation than using a hand-guided paintbrush? How does abstract art evoke a different feeling or interpretation from representational art?

Standards

ARTS: Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art. 

ARTS: Explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches. 

Adaptations

Have students explore the works of other Color Field painters, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, and others.

Have students learn about the Washington Color School, an art movement that started in the later 1950s that embraced the Color Field style and expanded on Abstract Expressionism.