Winslow Homer was one of the first great American artists to paint ordinary things…everyday scenes like trees blowing in the wind, waves splashing on the seashore, or hunters in the backcountry. He painted things that other artists didn’t consider important enough to paint. This picture is called “For to be a Farmer’s Boy,” and shows another of Homer’s favorite subjects…painting kids.
This watercolor, painted in Maine in 1887, shows a young boy pausing in his work of harvesting pumpkins to gaze off toward the setting sun. Homer named the painting after an Old English folk song:
“Though little, I’ll work as hard as a Turk if you’ll give me employ… to plow and sow, and reap and mow, and be a farmer’s boy.”
Watercolor paintings are created with paint that dissolves in water. Other types of paints are oil paint and acrylic paint.
If you go to your library or search the Internet and look for pictures of Winslow Homer paintings, you will discover many paintings of children, like this boy with the pumpkin. Look for other examples of Homer’s “ordinary” paintings…a fish leaping out of the river, waves on the seashore a bush with red flowers in front of a white wall, a campfire at night.
Challenge yourself to think like Winslow Homer! When you draw pictures or make paintings, remember that ordinary things can be very beautiful. Look around your house or your neighborhood for things that have been unnoticed by anyone else, and choose them to star in your next artwork. Maybe you’ll draw an electric drill, or a bowl of cereal left over after your baby sister’s breakfast, or a T-shirt hanging on the clothesline. Draw and paint your ordinary scene carefully. Look at the thing while you draw it. Take your sketchpad out onto the front porch and draw your mailbox! Then color or paint your picture in the style of the great American artist, Winslow Homer.