Ms. Danforth’s Third Grade students studied Joseph Pickett, one of America’ great early folk artists, with our art history program docents from Arts Matter. Joseph Pickett was born in New Hope, PA. He was completely self taught as an artist and made his own brushes and mixed his own paint. Joseph painted local village scenes and historic events in great detail. Since he had no formal training he suggested distance by arranging objects in his paintings from top to bottom and indicated the importance of objects by size. The Third Grade studied Coryell’s Ferry because of the importance of the scene. Coryell’s Ferry was where General George Washington finally defeated the British in 1776 and drove them out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This victory energized a tired Colonial army and gave the American people cause for celebration.
The children were asked to draw and cut out objects they might find in their own neighborhoods and paste them on a white board suggesting distance in the same way that Joseph Pickett had. The idea was to create their own local scene. This was a single, collaborative project. Great job, Third Grade!