Purple Mountains Majesty

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Art Around the World: North America

There’s something about this project that makes me want to break into “America the Beautiful” every time! For this Grade 1 lesson, we explored perspective, color mixing, and tints while creating our own little mountain landscapes inspired by the majestic mountains of North America.

We began by talking about perspective and how things change as they move farther away from us. Students learned that distant objects often appear lighter, softer, and less detailed than objects that are closer. We used mountains as the perfect example — when you look across a mountain range, the closest mountain usually appears darker and more defined, while the mountains in the distance gradually fade into the atmosphere.

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Then we turned that idea into a color-mixing challenge! Students started with purple paint and white paint and experimented with mixing different amounts of white to create a series of lighter and lighter tints. Their goal was to create at least three mountains, with each mountain becoming progressively lighter as it moved farther into the distance.

This was a great opportunity to reinforce the idea that adding white creates a tint while also helping students see how color can communicate depth. Instead of simply telling students that something is “far away,” we were showing them how artists can use color to make the viewer feel that distance.

Once the painted mountains were dry, students added oil pastel details over the top. They could bring their mountains to life with lines, texture, trees, snow, rocks, and other landscape details. The combination of soft purple tints and bold oil pastel marks created a beautiful contrast and gave each little mountain range its own personality.

Why it works: This project takes a somewhat tricky concept — atmospheric perspective—and makes it accessible to young artists through something they can see and understand. Students practice color mixing while learning how artists use value and color to create the illusion of depth and space. And the finished pieces? Pretty little mountain landscapes that make me want to sing “America the Beautiful” every time I see them hanging together!

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