Our Artist of the Month is

Georgia O’Keeffe

Our fun art activity below is inspired by

O'Keeffe's "Skull with Calla Lilies." artwork.

Who Was Georgia O’Keeffe?

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist who lived from 1887 to 1986. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes.

O’Keeffe painted nature in a way that showed how it made her feel. She is recognized as a pioneer of American modernism.

Though she mainly painted in oils, O’Keeffe experimented with multiple mediums, including charcoal, watercolors, and pastels. But pastels would be the only medium, along with oils she used regularly over the years.

Pastels allow you to blur or harden edges. O’Keeffe’s fingerprints were often visible in her pastel paintings, showing that she would firmly press the pigment into the paper.

Georgia O’Keeffe Artwork

O’Keeffe’s paintings of skulls were unique because she did not paint them in the traditional sense. Rather, she transformed them into beautiful, almost abstract shapes, often floating mid-air.

O’Keeffe wanted to create art that represented the beauty of life and death. She believed everything in life had its unique beauty, including skulls, often seen as symbols of death and decay.

One famous painting by O’Keeffe is “Skull with Calla Lilies.” In this painting, O’Keeffe uses a cow’s skull as the central focus, with flowers surrounding it. The skull’s starkness contrasts with the flowers’ softness.

Use watercolors and pencils to create the skull painting below inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. Make sure to grab the free printable art project!