A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

Written by Jen Bryant, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 978-0-375-86712-5

• Theme Study: Perseverance. Read aloud A Splash of Red to the whole class, and have students identify moments in the text where Horace shows the determination to create despite great challenges. Consider having students create timelines of Pippin’s life. Where are there moments of great struggle? Where are there moments of success? In what ways do other people in his life impact his journey as an artist? Create a duet text set by comparing how Pippin demonstrates perseverance with how Helen Keller does in her life using Annie and Helen and Helen’s Big World. Using both the words and the illustrations, support students to closely read and provide text evidence for their ideas. Then, have students think about their own lives. When have they persevered? What were their obstacles? How did they overcome them? Who supported them? 

• Words to Live By. Throughout the story there are quotes by Horace Pippin. They are also sourced in the back of the book:
  •  “Pictures just come to my mind…and I tell my heart to go ahead.”
  • “I can never forget suffering and I will never forget sunset. I came home with all of it in my mind.”
  • “If a man knows nothing but hard times, he will paint them, for he must be true to himself.”
  • “I go over that picture in my mind several times and when I am ready to paint it, I have all the details I need.”

• The Power of Pictures. This book has powerful pictures about an artist whose work had powerful messages. As such, this book invites us to illustration study. First, have students choose one of the illustrations in the story to closely read. When we closely read, we reread with purpose. Begin by having students describe what’s happening in the picture. Then, have students reread for what is important in the picture. What is the artist centering and for what reasons? Finally, have students reread for interpretation. Encourage students to notice the illustrators’ techniques. What choices did Melissa Sweet make about colors, lines, and the space of the page? How do her choices add to the story and convey an idea about Horace Pippin? After closely reading the images in the text, have students closely read one of Horace Pippin’s paintings using the same process (gist, importance, interpretation). What do they notice about the subjects he paints, what he centers, and how he uses colors, lines, and the space of the canvas? The book is titled A Splash of Red. Where do we see red in Pippin’s work? What impact does it make?

• Thinking in Pictures. As he walked the streets of his hometown, Pippin drew the colors and textures he saw: lacy white curtains, red geraniums, a yellow cat sprinting down an alley, green vines spiraling up a wall. Take a walk around the neighborhood with your students. Give them colored pencils, drawing paper, and clipboards and have them use drawings and words to capture the colors and textures that pop out at them. Then, have them share their thinking about what they captured. Where do they find beauty in their walk? Use the prompt I observe to help them write about their close observations of the world.  

• Living the Life of a Researcher. When collaborating to write and illustrate the book, Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet researched the life and art of Horace Pippin together. They drove through the back roads of eastern Pennsylvania where he was from. They spoke to curators who knew his work. They looked at his paintings and burnt-wood panels and visited his home. Support students to consider topics they are interested in and want to research within their own local communities. Help them brainstorm topics. Are there historical figures from their home area? Are there local leaders (both official and unofficial) within the community they can research and write about? Where can you go to find out more? Who can you talk to? How do your students want to share their research with the world? With K-3 classrooms this is often done best as a shared research project. With upper elementary school students, you may be able to then support them with individual or paired research projects.

• Picture Book Biographies of Artists. Form small groups of students to read about the lives of particular artists in a collaborative artist study. Gather together a collection of picture book biographies of artists such as Dave, the Potter, Marceau and Matisse, and  Georgia O’Keefe (see the listing in our entry on Diego Rivera: His World and Ours and the text suggestions below for further suggestions). Read the books with your students and closely examine the choices that the biographers have made about text and illustration. Which aspects of their subjects’ lives have the authors and illustrators chosen to highlight? Do they focus more on the childhood or adult life of the artist? How are the artists’ mentors, inspirations, commitments, and styles presented? When examining the illustrations, discuss how the art of the picture book biography enhances the readers’ understandings of the artists’ lives and work. You might find it particularly interesting to note how the artists’ works are depicted in the book. Are they reproductions of the actual works or are they illustrators’ representations? Support students to draw, paint, or photograph in the style of their favorite artist from your shared study. 

• Author/Illustrator Study: The author/illustrator relationship can be a powerful one. The author has to trust the illustrator to tell their story in pictures. Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet have worked together and separately to create some of the most compelling contemporary picture books in the last few years. Conduct an author/illustrator study of their work. Compare and contrast the books they have created together with books they have created with others. Students could work in pairs to become author/illustrator partners and create a shared story. How does their collaboration create something better than what they could have created alone?

Jen Bryant’s website:

Filed under: Biography & Memoirs, Nonfiction Picture Books, Picture Books