Grant Wood Art Activity

My daughter created a portrait painting inspired by Grant Wood.

In the course of studying the American Plain States, we looked at artwork depicting the plains and studied the artist Grant Wood. The above painting from the book Can You Find It America? was by the artist Paul Sample.

Grant Wood was born in Iowa and studied in Chicago. After traveling to Europe to study the masters, he returned to America to paint in a style entirely his own. We read the book Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Grant Wood to learn more about him.

One of Grant's most famous painting, American Gothic, shows a farming couple standing before a house. Since Grant Wood painted a portrait of people he was familiar with in the style of the Renaissance Artists, I asked my daughter to do the same thing.

In the past, she watched the youtube video How to Draw a Face - Basic Proportions, which really helped her to create this painting.

She worked on the image of the face adding shading and features.

Once she was finished with the face, she added her background which shows sand, water and the horizon. There is a boat, sea gull and sun in the background as well as a sunbather.




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