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 K-2 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.
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.
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.
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
INTRODUCTION
Read “THE SNEECHES” by Dr. Seuss. It takes about 4-½ minutes to read the story.
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 that 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 good life 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.
FISHING SMACKS, MENEMSHA, MASS. 1932, WATERCOLOR, 20-¼ x 26-¼”
During the summer, Lois, her older brother and mother spent their vacation at the beach.
Many of her early pictures were of the things she saw there like this 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
Lois went to art school in Boston and got a job as a textile artist. Her job was to create
designs like this one that were printed on sheets, clothing and furniture. Her fabric
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.
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
Let’s look at the colors Lois used in this fabric design. Colors are often described as
being either warm or cool. The warm colors are red, yellow and orange. 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 fabric 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?
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.
HISTORY (cont.)
NEGRO YOUTH 1929, CHARCOAL, 29 x 22”
When she tried to get a job as a teacher at an art school, Lois was turned down because
she was a black woman. But she didn’t get discouraged. She heard about schools that
needed young educated teachers like her 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. She
loved her job and started making time for her own art, like this charcoal drawing, which
won her an award.
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
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 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. What are they? (Greens, blues and some violets.)
JENNIE 1943, OIL ON CANVAS, 35-¾ X 28-¾”
After she returned from France to the United States, Lois began putting 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 often didn’t let black
artists show 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 they 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
FYI Jones was awarded a grant to study at the Academie Julian
she usually had them mail to
in Paris for the 1937-38 school year. While there, she adopted
her. Sometimes, if they found
the plein air (open-air) method of painting outdoors on location,
out she was actually a black
a practice she would continue lifelong. While painting along the
Seine she met Emile Bernard, a colleague of Vincent van Gogh,
artist, they took her awards
Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin. She and her good friend Celine
back and gave them to
Tabary became friends with Emile who encouraged Jones and
another artist who was white.
was impressed with her work. She completed more that 40
She wasn’t angry or
works during her nine months at the Academie painting street
discouraged about it though.
scenes and still lifes executed in the Impressionistic style.
During her year of study abroad Jones underwent a transition
She decided to put her energy
from teacher and designer exclusively, to a painter and artist of
into her art and helping other
strength and accomplishment.
young artists in the classes
she taught instead.
CRITICISM
MARCHE, HAITI 1963,
FYI At the beginning of her Haitian period, Jones’s
European training was apparent in palette and organization
POLYMER ON BOARD, 33 X 29”
of her compositions. She gradually developed a fresh
Lois’ painting began to look
energetic and highly individualized style more expressive of
different after she got married
the exuberance and vigor of Haitian life. She now abandoned
and began traveling with her
her traditional approach to painting in favor of an expressive,
husband to his homeland, the
colorful, hard edged style that fused abstraction, decorative
patterns and naturalism.
island of Haiti. (Her husband
was also an artist.) Her colors
became much brighter and her paintings had more energy. This painting shows a scene
from an outdoor market in Haiti. The markets are like outdoor stores where people could
buy all kinds of things they needed.
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
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.)
2. Is it a warm or cool color? (The red border is a warm color.)
3. 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. After you notice the red border, where does your eye go next? (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?
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 visiting 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. She began to use
simpler shapes and brighter colors, mostly reds, yellows and blues in her paintings.
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
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
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.
Africa made a big impression on her and she started putting pictures and symbols she saw
there into her own art.
DAHOMEY 1971, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 54 X 40”
For more than 75 years Lois Mailou Jones gave our country her talents as a teacher and
artist. She passed away at the age of 92.
She is an example of someone who never stopped trying to do her best no matter what
other people said or thought about her. Eventually people realized treating 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.
Lois continued to grow and learn her entire life and gave us wonderful art to inspire us.
This painting reminds us of her fabric 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
(Kindergarten volunteers may opt to pre-cut these)
Astrobright or regular construction paper red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, cut into
thirds or quarters. (You may wish to use small boxes or other containers to keep
all the cool colors together and all warm papers together. K-1st – may wish to precut some shapes for them, especially in the Fall.)
Scissors
Glue
9 x 12” variety of colored construction paper for backing
Color wheel
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. Pre-cutting 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, if not pre-cut.
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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2
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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Jones Lesson: PowerPoint K-2