LOIS MAILOU JONES
1905-1998
“The wonderful thing about an artist is that there is no end to creative expression.
Painting is my life; my life is painting.”
Grades 3-5 PowerPoint Lesson Plan
OBJECTIVES
HISTORY: Places an artwork in its art historical context.
Students discuss the influence that discrimination practices had on the art and
life of Lois Mailou Jones.
CRITICISM: Informed talk about art.
Students identify warm and cool colors and discuss how warm colors advance
and cool colors recede in a painting.
AESTHETICS: Questions the nature, value and beauty of art.
Students discuss whether or not an artist should receive recognition for his/her
work in fields such as textile design.
PRODUCTION: Creating art.
Students create a work, which illustrates the use of warm colors on one half of
the work, and cool colors on the other half.
VOCABULARY
Note to volunteers The vocabulary words will be in bold italics throughout the
lesson. They will be defined within the text of the lesson and do not need to be
presented separately.
Warm colors: Because of learned association between color and object, colors
like red, orange and yellow become identified as warm colors. On the color wheel
these are the colors from yellow to red violet. Warm colors tend to advance
visually.
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Cool colors: Colors such as blue, green and purple are identified as cool colors.
On the color wheel these are the colors from yellow-green to violet. Cool colors
tend to recede, or go back in space.
Textile artist: a person who creates designs that are printed on cloth. Textile is
another name for fabric that may be woven or knitted.
INTRODUCTION
Read “THE SNEECHES” by Dr. Seuss. It takes about 4-½ minutes to read the
story.
Note to volunteers Dr. Seuss books can be enjoyed by people of all ages. You
may preface the story with older students by acknowledging that they may have
read this book a long time ago, but there are often deeper meanings to his
stories. Do a summary of the story if that better suits your needs, or ask a
student who knows the story to do so.
Like the Sneeches, Lois Mailou Jones was an African American artist who was
sometimes treated differently for two reasons. One was that the color of her skin
was black and for a long time in this country black people were not treated the
same as white Americans. Of course today, we understand that this is wrong.
People are people no matter what the color of their skin is or whether or not they
have stars on their bellies!
The other reason she was sometimes treated differently was because she was a
woman. Most people thought being an artist was not a good job for a woman.
Now, let’s look at the art of this woman named Lois Mailou Jones. Say her name
with me…
HISTORY
PHOTOGRAPH OF LOIS MAILOU JONES 1925
Lois Mailou Jones grew up in Boston, Massachusetts where she was born a little
more than one hundred years ago. Her father was one of the first African
Americans to finish law school there and her mother worked in a beauty shop
and designed hats. Her family was able to live a fairly privileged lifestyle in
Boston as part of wealthy African American society. But for most of her life, Lois
lived in a world where her choices of which school she could go to, what
restaurant to eat at and where she could sit on a bus were limited because the
color of her skin was black.
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FISHING SMACKS, MENEMSHA, MASS. 1932, WATERCOLOR, 20-¼ x 26-¼”
During the summer, Lois, her older brother and mother spent their vacation on
the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Here is where she says her “life in art really
began”. Many of her early pictures were of the things she saw there like this
watercolor painting of fishing boats. When she was 15, her mother hung Lois’
artwork on the clothesline in their garden and invited the neighbors over for
refreshments and Lois’ first art show.
GROGRETTE 1928, CRETONNE TEXTILE DESIGN, 40-1/4 X 30”
Lois went to art school in Boston and after graduating began a career as a textile
artist. Say that with me….Textile is another word for cloth or fabrics. Her job
was to create designs like this one that were printed on sheets, clothing and
furniture. Her textile designs won prizes and awards. “It was exciting”, she wrote,
“to be in New York and see a window display of couches and chairs covered in
one of her fabrics.” But she soon realized few people would know she designed
it, since the artist’s name is not printed onto fabric like it is on a painting where
you sign your name. She decided to switch back to painting and drawing so she
would be recognized for her work.
Let’s look at the colors Lois used in this textile design. Colors are often
described as being either warm or cool. The warm colors are red, orange and
yellow. Where do you see a warm color in this design?
The cool colors are green, blue and violet. Where do you see some cool colors
in this design?
AESTHETICS
Note to volunteers These questions are meant to be open-ended; there is no
right or wrong answer.
When a textile is printed usually only the manufacturer’s name is shown on the
edge. Do you think the artist’s name should also be shown? Why or why not?
HISTORY (cont.)
NEGRO YOUTH 1929, CHARCOAL, 29 x 22”
When she tried to get a job as a teaching assistant at a Boston art school, they
turned her down. Not because she would not be a good teacher, but because
she was a black woman. It wasn’t long before Lois heard about the need for
young educated teachers to work with black students in the South. She decided
to give it a try and got a job teaching art in a small college in North Carolina. That
began what turned out to be a 50-year career as an art teacher! She loved her
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students and teaching and started making time for her own art, like this charcoal
drawing for which she won an award.
THE ASCENT OF ETHIOPIA 1932, OIL ON CANVAS, 23-1/2 x 17-1/4”
When Lois was about 25 years old, she was inspired by something happening in
New York called the Harlem Renaissance. It was a time when many talented
African Americans came to a mostly black neighborhood in New York City called
Harlem. It was here that an explosion of creativity was happening in art, music,
dance and literature. These artists were celebrating their African heritage and
Lois created this painting, which tells the story of these African Americans in the
United States.
FYI The information contained in a box in this lesson is added for the adult volunteer’s
enrichment (think of it as a giant parenthesis in the middle of the lesson). Generally, the
information is not intended for inclusion in the classroom presentation. However, if
appropriate, you may wish to present some of this information to the students.
In the summer of 1928, at a lecture for young adults convened by Boston’s black scholars,
Lois Jones met Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder and director of the Palmer Memorial
Institute, a junior college in North Carolina. She mentioned the need for young educators to
come to the South and teach. Her appeal was so moving after she finished, Jones told her
she was interested in establishing an art department at Palmer if they didn’t have one. Ms.
Brown thought Jones was too young, at 23, and didn’t think she’d be able to do it, but Jones
convinced her otherwise.
In addition to her duties in the fledgling art department, she coached the basketball team,
taught folk dancing and played piano for Sunday Chapel services. Jones remained at Palmer
until 1930 when she was recruited by the chairman of the art department at Howard
University in Washington, D.C.
During her 47 year career as a professor of design and watercolor painting, Jones instructed
more than 2500 students- young, old, amateur and professional and of many racial and
ethnic backgrounds. Her importance to their collective artistic development is evident in the
number and caliber of her students who have distinguished themselves as professional
designers, graphic artists, educators, painters and sculptors.
FYI The Harlem Renaissance was an era in which
Let’s look at the story she tells.
Harlem became an international capital of black
The face of an African king in the
culture. An intense period of artistic activity ensued
lower right corner guides our
as African-American painters and sculptors joined
eyes to the sad figures in chains,
poets, novelists, musicians and dramatists in this
which represent slavery.
New York community. The artists of this era helped
frame the context in which an important chapter
As the figures climb past the
would be written in the chronicle of Africanpyramids (remember the
American culture.
pyramids were built in Northern
Africa) they arrive at the top,
triumphant African American artists, writers and musicians of Harlem.
What color do you notice first when you look at this painting? (Yellow.) If you are
not sure, close your eyes and open them to see what color you notice first. Is it a
warm or cool color? (Warm.)
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When both warm and cool colors are in a painting, the warm colors seem to
come forward or stand out. You notice them first, especially if they are
surrounded by cool colors like in this painting. Warm colors are said to
“advance” or seem closer in space to us. The cool colors are said to “recede” or
seem farther away. Which colors advance or seem closer to us, warm or cool?
(Warm.)
JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG 1948, OIL ON CANVAS, 24 X 28-3/4”
Lois took a break from teaching for a year and traveled to France where she
learned to speak French and painted views of Paris and the surrounding
landscapes. She enjoyed the freedom and lack of prejudice she experienced
there; no one there seemed to care if she was a black artist, unlike back in the
United States. She would return to France to paint and visit almost every year
over the next 20 years. This painting of a garden is painted using mostly cool
colors.
FYI Jones was awarded a grant to study at the Academie
Where has she used warm
colors? Thinking about
how warm colors advance
in a picture, why do you
think she used them
there? (To draw attention
to the figures in the
painting and they help
move your eye around the
painting.)
Julian in Paris for the 1937-38 school year. While there,
she adopted the plein air (open-air) method of painting
outdoors on location, a practice she would continue
lifelong. While painting along the Seine she met Emile
Bernard, a colleague of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne
and Paul Gauguin. She and her good friend Celine Tabary
became friends with Emile who encouraged Jones and
was impressed with her work. She completed more than
40 works during her nine months at the Academie painting
street scenes and still lifes executed in the Impressionistic
style. During her year of study abroad Jones underwent a
transition from teacher and designer exclusively, to a
painter and artist of strength and accomplishment.
JENNIE 1943, OIL ON CANVAS, 35-¾ X 28-¾”
After she returned from France to the United States, Lois began to include more
African Americans, like this young girl, in her art. At the same time, she found
she could not put many of her paintings in art shows because of unfair rules that
prevented black artists from showing their work. Not only was she treated unfairly
because she was black, but also because she was a woman. Almost all artists
were men at the time and people didn’t think it was proper for a woman to want
to become an artist.
So she sent her paintings into art shows by mail or had a good friend take them
who did not tell them a black woman had painted them. Her artwork was then
easily accepted and she won many prizes, which were usually mailed to her.
Sometimes, if they found out she was actually a black artist, they took her
awards back and gave them to another artist who was white. She wasn’t angry or
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discouraged about it though. She decided instead to put her energy into her art
and in helping other young artists in the classes she taught.
CRITICISM
MARCHE, HAITI 1963, POLYMER ON BOARD, 33 X 29”
Lois’ painting took on a new direction
FYI At the beginning of her Haitian period, Jones’s
after she married and began
European training was apparent in palette and
traveling with her husband to his
organization of her compositions. She gradually
homeland, the island of Haiti. (Her
developed a fresh energetic and highly individualized
husband was also an artist.) Her
style more expressive of the exuberance and vigor of
colors became much brighter and
Haitian life. She now abandoned her traditional
approach to painting in favor of an expressive, colorful,
her paintings had more energy. This
hard edged style that fused abstraction, decorative
painting shows a scene from an
patterns and naturalism.
outdoor market in Haiti. The markets
are like outdoor stores where people
could buy all kinds of things they
needed.
Take a minute to look at it and find the warm and cool colors.
Sensory Properties: What do you see?
1. What are the warm colors in this painting and where are they located?
(Red, orange and yellow are the warm colors. The border is red. Some of
the clothing and items being carried are oranges and yellows.)
2. What are the cool colors and where are they located? (Blue and green
are the cool colors seen in this painting. The buildings are blue, some of
the clothing and items carried are blue and green.)
Formal Properties: How is it arranged?
1. What color do you notice when you first look at this painting? (The red
border.) Is it a warm or cool color? (Warm.)
2. Would you say the red advances or recedes? (Advances.) What does that
mean? (It is one of the colors you notice first.)
3. Why do you think the artist did that? (To frame the people inside an artist
can use color to draw our attention to parts of a painting or to move our
eye around the painting. Our eyes will look for colors that are repeated in
a painting.)
4. How does your eye move from color to color around this painting? (Your
eye follows the red border around the outside of the picture and then
moves to the figures inside the border. The warm colors stand out and
your eye moves down the painting following the warm golds, reds and
oranges.)
Technical Properties: What media, tools and techniques were used?
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1. What materials would you need to paint a picture like this? (Brushes,
paints, something to paint on – canvas.)
Expressive Properties: What mood or idea does it express?
1. What sounds do you think you would be hearing if you were at this
market? (Footsteps, people talking, music, a dog barking, doors opening
and closing, etc.)
2. What kind of feeling do you think Lois Jones was trying to express about
the market? (Excitement, fun, hurry, energy, noise, etc.)
HISTORY (cont.)
STREET VENDORS 1978, ACRYLIC, 60 X 40”
Lois and her husband visited Haiti each year to paint, teach and relax. Her art
became bolder and simpler in color, using mostly reds, yellows and blues.
INITIATION, LIBERIA 1983, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 35-½ X 23-½”
When she was 63, Lois traveled to Africa for the first time, where she studied art
in eleven countries. The people and art of Africa made a big impression on her
and she immediately began including images and symbols she saw there in her
own art.
This work is about the
ceremony of a young girls’
passage into womanhood.
Lois carefully recreated the
mask, neck chokers and
hair-braiding that were part
of the ceremony. She uses
some textile like designs in
the artwork along the bottom
edge of this painting as well.
FYI In the spring of 1970, Jones visited 11 African
countries to research art. The project yielded an
extensive slide collection, which Jones presented to
Howard University. The culture and art of Africa made
an indelible impression on her, which was immediately
apparent in her work. In this phase of her career she
served as a bridge from the Harlem Renaissance era to
a new generation of artists from the 70’s who fervently
sought their ancestral legacy.
DAHOMEY 1971, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 54 X 40”
For more than 75 years Lois Mailou Jones gave our country her talents as an
artist and as a teacher of art. She passed away at the age of 92.
Eventually people realized discriminating against people who were different was
unfair and it is now against the law. She became a famous artist with her
paintings shown in museums all over the world.
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Lois continued to grow and learn her entire life and gave us wonderful art to
inspire us. This painting reminds us of her textile designs, a feeling of Africa and
the bright colors of Haiti all rolled into one.
PRODUCTION
Criteria:
Students will create a work, which uses a warm color palette on one half and a
cool color palette on the other half.
Materials:
9 x 12” black construction paper with animal outline copied on it. The lines will
show up when copied onto the black paper.
Astrobright or regular construction paper - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and
violet, cut into thirds or quarters. (You may wish to use small boxes or
plates to keep all the cool colored papers together and all warm colored
papers together.)
Scissors
Glue
9 x 12” variety of colored construction paper for backing
Note to volunteers You may wish to use small boxes, plates or other containers
to keep all the cool colors together and all the warm colors together. Precutting some shapes for students is helpful if time is limited. Paper punches
(available at craft stores) work well for cutting shapes in advance of the
production time.
Instructions:
1. Use a color wheel to identify and review the warm and cool colors.
2. Students are to cut out the animal copied onto the black paper.
3. Suggest some geometric shapes that are easy to cut from strips of paper
i.e., triangles, squares, long rectangles, diamonds, and mountain shapes.
Include circles, and a crescent moon shape as well.
4. Students are to visually divide their animal shape in half, either
horizontally or vertically.
5. On one half of the animal, use warm colors to cut shapes and create a
design. On the other half, use cool colors.
6. Look at the way Jones repeated shapes and colors in her work and
encourage students to repeat them in their designs.
7. Glue all the shapes onto the animal.
8. Choose a warm or cool color for the background and glue the animal to
the 9 x 12” paper.
9. Students sign their work.
Jill Bogle, 2006
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