Thursday, May 14, 2015

Ernest Lee, AKA "The Chicken Man" and the Palm Trees

Who is Ernest Lee?
 
Folk artist, Ernest Lee, is best known as "The Chicken Man." He describes his unique brand of folk art as a process that "I do [paint] from my heart, not from pictures." "Be what you are, don't be what you ain't. Because if you be what you ain't, then you ain't what you are." - Ernest Lee. 
 
A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, Ernest Lee has been drawing since he was 5 years old and painting since he was 12. While considered an "outsider artist", Ernest has studied art at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Alexandria, VA., and the Rose Hill Art Center in Aiken, SC. A prolific artist he is currently best known for his dancing chicken paintings though he also paints dogs, cats, flamingos, and celebrities.
 
Ernest is well known in Columbia, SC, where for many years he maintained an outdoor street corner gallery with his van and trailer. Ernest's work has been exhibited in such places as the South Carolina State Museum, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Washington, DC. (from Columbia Famously Hot)


 
Here are some of Ernest Lee's Chickens and Palm Trees.

SC artist, Ernest Lee, "The Chicken man".
 
Directions:
 
I showed this video:



I gave the kids a 9" x 24" sheet of paper.
I had them oil pastel the tree.
Then, they sponge painted the background.



 
 
 
 
 
 

A great project.
Much success.
Very close to summer, so the palm trees were perfect!
1965

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