Marcus Edwards, a member of the Chautauqua County Beekeepers Association and the North Western Pennsylvania Bee Keepers Association, approached Falconer Central School’s Drawing and Painting class with the idea of painting the “brood chambers” of bee hives. Submitted photo

Marcus Edwards, a member of the Chautauqua County Beekeepers Association and the North Western Pennsylvania Bee Keepers Association, approached Falconer Central School’s Drawing and Painting class, with an interesting project idea — painting “brood chambers” of bee hives. The paintings would serve as beacons for the bees to find their hives.

With this in mind, students selected an artist, whose work is recognizable throughout history, and researched facts about the artist and their artwork. Using acrylic paints, students recreated works from the masters and painted on individual brood chambers. Once completed, the paintings were sprayed with spar urethane to protect them from the elements.

Students participating included: Keely Bell recreating Thomas Cole’s, “Italian Coast Scene With Ruined Tower,” Erika Russell recreating Vincent Van Gogh’s, “Irises,” Kaylee Crone creating a version of sunflowers in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe, Kassidy LaBarr recreating representations of Stan Lee’s iconic characters, Alexa Wagner representing Salvador Dali, Brittany Gifford recreating examples of Claude Monet’s lily pads, and Kayla Alexander (missing from photo) recreating Gustave Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer.”