There was this Scholastic Art magazine with a Jaune Quick-To-See Smith painting in the centerfold – of a canoe.  I loved the way she expressed social injustice with paint and collage.

I had been planning a series of art projects using horses and thought her work would be a perfect fit.  And then, upon further investigation, it turns out that Jaune Quick-to-See Smith had created a series of horse paintings in this style! Isn’t that crazy???  It was a perfect fit.  Serendipity at its finest!

This year, two of my 8th grade art classes learned about her work.  What is great about this school year – my students all have I-pads now and they can research as they work.  My ultimate goal is to connect with the artist and share this work with her.  That would be a dream come true!

I taught them how to draw a horse using shapes and the technique known as measuring – all parts of a horse are actually in proportion to each other!  We created the drawings on tagboard, cut them out and used them as stencils on the paintings.

They painted in acrylic then added the horse.  Collage items from magazines that represented themselves were affixed with Mod-Podge.  Then students added more paint to create rhythm and texture.

Finished work is on display in the Chittenango Middle School library!