Did you know that colors can be warm or cool? We learned that the warm colors – red, orange, and yellow – remind us of fire, autumn colors, and summertime, and that the cool colors – blue, green, and violet – remind us of winter, water, and ice.  Not only do these colors look warm or cool, but they actually have the power to make us feel warm or cold. It has been scientifically proven that if you paint one room orange and another room purple, you could make the temperature in the orange room colder than the temperature in the purple room, and people would still feel warmer in the orange room.

Using real leaves, watercolors, and an interesting new painting technique, we first created backgrounds made of cool colors.  Then, using Albert Durer’s observational drawing of a rhinoceros for inspiration, we drew detailed fall leaves that we had collected and colored them using warm colors.

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