How to Use the Paint Techniques of Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe's motto was, "I paint what I see." This is the mentality that one must use when trying to use the painting techniques of Georgia O'Keeffe, along with varying colors and abstract shapes of still life images, such as landscape, flowers and objects in nature. She combined cubism and realism, which resulted in paintings that depicted objects realistically but put emphasis on their geometrical form and shape.

Things You'll Need

• Canvas
• Paints
• Paint brushes
• Barren landscapes, flowers, rocks, animal bones, shells and so on for still life subjects

Instructions

1. Use bright colors contrasted against softer colors, such as mellow yellow against fire red or mint green against brilliant ocean blue. Utilize the entire canvas, stretching shapes and colors further than they may be represented in reality to help the mind imagine what the subject looks like in reality.

2. 

   Paint natural still lifes such as flowers, shells, rocks, barren landscapes like the the desert or the ocean. Do not include people or animals, unless it is a still life of life after death such as animal bones, which Georgia O'Keeffe used often. Do not try to replicate physical action or movement. The point of using this artist's painting techniques is to take everyday images and subjects and transform them into an abstract picture with flowing emphasized lines.

3. Let the flow or natural shapes show in the artwork. Let the color travel across the canvas, and rarely use straight across, or up or down lines. The lines and contours of the subjects should be crisp and clear, so there is no mistake what the difference is between the subject and the background color of the canvas, even if they are close to the same color.

4. 

   Represent the landscapes that Georgia O'Keeffe represented, which were the Southwest and New Mexico. These are the locations where she caught her inspiration and found the objects she painted, such as cow skulls, desert flowers, the sun and desert sand, and rocks.

5. Utilize a wide range of natural colors, as Georgia O'Keeffe did. When working on one painting, she often utilized every shade of one color in a painting, especially if it was of a flower or landscape. If you are painting a red flower, make the main focal point be the center of the flower, almost on the inside. Make this focal point take up the entire canvas. Use deep reds, crimson, light pink, hot pink, pale pink, white, white yellow, blood red and red purple to reveal the wealth of colors in a magnified flower's center.

Tips & Warnings

• Examine Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings to see further examples. Keep in mind that it is very hard to replicate a legendary artist's work.

Resources

• Georgia O'Keeffe at artist.org