Docent Training
AAYF 2025-2026 Poster
A Walk Through Color Fields
Roaring Rothko
Dino Dreams
FIELDS OF GOLD
A TRIBUTE TO THE CALIFORNIA POPPY
CREATED BY JEANNINE MCHENRY
FEBRUARY 2026
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Students will understand the importance of the poppy as a symbol of California as they create their own poppy painting in the California Impressionist style using an impasto technique.
OBJECTIVES
1. Students will learn about the importance of the California Poppy in history and art.
2. Students will learn about the impressionist movement and its use of the impasto technique.
3. Students will gain hands-on experience painting with acrylic paints and modeling medium using a palette knife.
4. Students will learn to let go of realism and perfectionism in favor of a loose and energetic paintings.
SUPPLIES (Per student)
• Canvas: 5×7 board
• Paper Palette: 9×12, 1 each
• Acrylic Paints: Cadmium Orange Hue, Primary Yellow, Titanium White, Cerulean Blue, Green Deep Permanent
• Modeling Paste
• Paint brush: 1” flat (or similar)
• Palette Knife (or provide an assortment per table)
SUPPLIES (Shared)
• Paper Towels
• Printed reference sheets
• AAYF labels
ART VOCABULARY
Impressionism: A 19th-century art style characterized by loose brushwork, vibrant colors, and a focus oncapturing light, movement, and everyday scenes with a sense of spontaneity.
Impasto: A painting technique where thick layers of paint are applied to the canvas, creating a textured, threedimensional surface.
Complementary colors: Pairs of colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel and create a strong visual contrast when placed together. Examples include red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple.
Composition: The strategic arrangement of visual elements such as color, shape, and line to create a balancedand engaging work of art.
Perspective: You can create the illusion of depth and space by making objects closer to you larger and thosethat are father away smaller.
DOWNLOAD
RESOURCES
TEACHERS/PARENTS RESOURCES
Distance Learning Tips – Suggestions to help make this experience enjoyable for all.
Elements of Art – Resource sheet with vocabulary used by artists.
