ArtEd online.

Nature's Gifts

For Teachers

The natural environment has simultaneously provided artists with inspiration and subject matter. Artists have either interpreted or recorded the natural world and both approaches provide possibilities for your students. The Internet offers rich online resources to enrich your own knowledge and inspire your students.

www.getty.edu/artsednet/ resources/Ecology/index.html

Art & Ecology offers abundant curriculum resources for all grade levels and an online exhibition of contemporary ecological art. Artists featured include Andy Goldsworthy Lynn Hull, Maya Lin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and many others.

d-sites.net/english/ goldsworthy.htm

Read this evocative essay to learn more about the artist Andy Goldsworthy, known for his manipulations of natural materials.

www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/goldsworthy_andy.html

Follow the links to discover additional sites about Andy Goldsworthy.

www1.kunsthauswien.com/english/mainindex.htm

KunstHaus Wien, tThe Friedens reich Hundertwasser Museum in Vienna, Austria.

www.op.net/~jmeltzer/gaudi.html

Artist and architect Antoni Gaudi is known for his fantastic, organic Art Nouveau architecture, primarily found in Barcelona. This site provides background information and images of his most important works.

www.henrimatisse.com/

The master of organic shapes, Henri Matisse, is the focus of this website. Included are a biography, extensive reviews of books about the artist, and prints that you can order.

www.phil.unt.edu/show/index.htm

This extensive website focuses on the history of European and American landscape painting, garden design, and the natural history sciences. Show and discuss the site with your students. Questions for students to consider include: How did Thomas Jefferson's interests change attitudes toward gardening and natural preservation? Why was Thomas Cole reluctant to paint real places? How is the work of contemporary artists different from historical representations of the same themes or subjects?

Nature's Gifts

For Students

Directions: Visit the websites list below and answer the questions o a separate piece of paper.

www.hundertwasser.at

Friedensreich Hundertwasser was a Austrian artist who believed that architecture should be in harmony with the natural environment. Begin by clicking on the English version.

On the page that appears, first click on Hundertwasser, then on Architecture to view a number of the artist's built environments. Which one do you think is most based on the natural environment? Next, go back and click on KunstHaus Wien and then on The Role of KunstHaus Wein. Read on to determine if you agree or disagree with the artist's statements. Browse the site to find the answer to this question: What did Hundertwasser consider to be the "third skin"?

www.telebooks.com

Take a virtual walk through six of Antoni Gaudi's organic-inspired Art Nouveau creations. Why were Gaudi's forms considered organic? Which seems most inspired by natural forms? Which is the most geometric?

www.donbarnett.com/tilesets/s et3.htm

Download these jpeg files which were extracted from Gaudi's designs. Try to determine what the inspiration from nature for each design might have been.

www.artbma.org/education/con e_kids/F_conekids.html

Henri Matisse was the most famous French artist of the 20th century, a master of color and organic shape, and a close friend of Pablo Picasso. Follow the directions of Rowdy, Matisse's dog, to explore his art and create your own.

www.audubon.org/bird/BoAd/BO A_index.html

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was the foremost wildlife illustrator of the United States for a time. He is especially known for Birds of America, a collection of 435 lifesize prints. On this site, click on Enter, then State Birds. Find and learn about the bird for your state. Go back to the table of contents and then click on and read John James Audubon as Artist. Why was Audubon accused of depicting birds in "too theatric a manner"? How did his collection methods differ from those of naturalist artists today? Why do you think he is considered a significant artist today?