D is for Elliot Daingerfield - North Carolina Artist

For our artist studies, We are going to combine art and state geography.  So we are going to look at an artist in each state and look at what inspired them, their technique, and what mediums they used.

For North Carolina, we looked at Elliot Daingerfield.....

Elliott Daingerfield, was born in Harper's Ferry, Va., the son of Captain John Elliott Daingerfield and Matilda Wickham DeBrau Daingerfield. The family moved to Fayetteville in 1861 after President Jefferson Davis appointed his father to command the arsenal there and to serve as paymaster for Confederate troops. Despite financial losses suffered by his family as a result of the Civil War, Daingerfield was educated at private schools in Fayetteville and instructed by a tutor until he was twelve.

In 1880 he moved to New York to study art.  He became an instructor at the National Academy of Design. In 1884 he moved to the Holbein Studios, where he made the acquaintance of artist George Inness. The two men became good friends and Inness gave Daingerfield much advice on style and technique. In later years, Daingerfield credited Inness with having taught him the technical use of color and light, often regarded as the hallmark of his work. After Inness's death, Daingerfield wrote his friend's biography, George Inness: The Man and His Art (1911).

In the summer of 1886, Daingerfield traveled to Blowing Rock to recuperate from a severe case of diphtheria contracted during the previous winter. This proved to be a turning point in his artistic development as he was enchanted by the North Carolina mountains and made them the subject of many of his paintings. Also, it was the beginning of his long devotion to Blowing Rock where he maintained summer homes for the rest of his life: 

Windwood, his second residence, was completed in 1900; Westglow, his third, was built in 1916.

The girls and I looked at some pieces of art that he done....

He favored Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge area as inspiration.  So the girls and I talked about our backyard and how it was kind of plain. Then I sent them outside with instructions to draw something in the backyard....but make it seem a little better...lol..

Here is Lydia's picture....This is the tree behind the pool....she wasn't enthusiastic about doing art that day.  So she added an owl, which we do not actually have living in our tree.  She said an owl would make everything better.

Caty was drawing our pear tree in a mud slide.  I need to start watching how much world news she watches...lol.

They used watercolor crayons for this project.  Daingerfield used pencils, watercolors and then oils also.  We really....really....really LOVE watercolor crayons.  They are a great investment and the kids love how they can change the look of their art so easily.

Linking up with other moms at Blogging through the Alphabet.