Classroom Activity

Art Starters: Jacob Lawrence

Part of Art Tales for Pre-K

Jacob Lawrence was a painter, storyteller, and teacher. He wanted to tell stories about the lives of African Americans. He did this by painting pictures of the people and places he saw every day. He also painted series of famous people and scenes from history. Lawrence lived in New York City for many years, but he also traveled to the country of Nigeria to learn more about its art and culture.

Painted and drawn with areas of flat, vibrant colors, we look slightly down onto a bustling street market in this stylized, horizontal scene. It is created almost entirely with shades of sky and royal blue, buttercup and harvest yellow, caramel and ash brown, and spearmint green with only a few touches of brick and crimson red. The people all have black-colored skin with their features outlined in white. They sit, stand, gather, or walk along stalls lining the street that extends away from us. Some wear caps, headdresses, or are bareheaded. They wear wraps or togas that mostly leave arms bare. Some carry goods on their heads, sit and eat, hold children and babies, or reach for wares. One person holds a white chicken and another leads a couple of goats along the street. The inverted, narrow V of the street meets the shallow V of the rooflines of the buildings or awnings of the stalls just above the center of the composition. The upside-down triangular filling the distant area between the rooflines has a dark yellow ground where densely packed tables, carts, buildings, people, and several chickens are tiny in scale. A strip of blue along the top edge of the painting suggests the sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in graphite in the lower right corner, “Jacob Lawrence 64.”
Jacob Lawrence, Street to Mbari, 1964, glue tempera, opaque watercolor and graphite on wove paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke, 1993.18.1

Grade Level

Subject

Look

How many different colors do you see? Name them.

What kinds of shapes do you see? Does that shape repeat somewhere else in the painting?

What are the people doing? Make a list of their activities.

What do you see off in the distance, in the background of the painting?

What one word would you use to describe the overall mood or feeling of this painting?

Imagine you are walking through this scene. What sounds would you hear? What might you smell or taste? What could you feel with your fingertips?

How would this artwork look different if it were the end of the day?

What would you want to ask the artist about this work?

Read

Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood (Spanish language version: Quizás algo hermoso: Cómo el arte transformó un barrio)
by F. Isabel Campoy, Theresa Howell, and Rafael López

Mira loves to make art and share it with her neighbors. One day she and her neighbors work together to make art for the whole neighborhood.

Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence, A Young Artist in Harlem
by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and Christopher Myers

Young Jake tells the story of his neighborhood in Harlem and how his community inspires his art.

Make: Paint a gathering place

You Will Need

  • Pencil
  • Paints
  • Paintbrushes
  • Heavyweight paper

Think of a place where people gather—a park, school assembly, church, game, or concert. What different things do people do there? What is the overall feeling you get from being there?

Draw the scene in pencil, using simple shapes and outlines. First, draw the people and objects at the bottom of the page. Then fill in the space around them, repeating some of the same shapes. Will you include yourself as part of this scene?

Like Jacob Lawrence, choose only four colors (plus black and white) to paint the scene. Using one color at a time, fill in each shape.

Vocab Bank

  • background
  • culture
  • distance
  • scene
  • series

Download

Art Tales: Coloring and Cut-Outs booklet (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Art Tales for Pre-K (PDF, 7.2 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte (PDF, 7.5 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte: Colorear y Recortes (PDF, 3.7 MB)

An Eye for Art: Jacob Lawrence teaching resource (PDF, 9.4 MB)
 

Visit

Register for the Art Tales pre-K school tour

Submit Student Work

Send images of your students' projects that follow these activities - email [email protected]

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Painted and drawn with areas of flat, vibrant colors, we look slightly down onto a bustling street market in this stylized, horizontal scene. It is created almost entirely with shades of sky and royal blue, buttercup and harvest yellow, caramel and ash brown, and spearmint green with only a few touches of brick and crimson red. The people all have black-colored skin with their features outlined in white. They sit, stand, gather, or walk along stalls lining the street that extends away from us. Some wear caps, headdresses, or are bareheaded. They wear wraps or togas that mostly leave arms bare. Some carry goods on their heads, sit and eat, hold children and babies, or reach for wares. One person holds a white chicken and another leads a couple of goats along the street. The inverted, narrow V of the street meets the shallow V of the rooflines of the buildings or awnings of the stalls just above the center of the composition. The upside-down triangular filling the distant area between the rooflines has a dark yellow ground where densely packed tables, carts, buildings, people, and several chickens are tiny in scale. A strip of blue along the top edge of the painting suggests the sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in graphite in the lower right corner, “Jacob Lawrence 64.”

Educational Resource:  Art Starters: Jacob Lawrence

A lesson for preschool to kindergarten students about artist Jacob Lawrence’s 1964 painting Street to Mbari. Students learn how to look at this painting, what you can read to learn more, how to paint a gathering place, and a list of vocabulary terms related to this activity.

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