Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Matisse Inspired Apples







































My Experiment


I originally saw this project on Artsonia and then again on Fine Lines and The Teaching Palette. I was happy to finally give it a go with my Drawing and Painting class today. After looking at Matisse's "Apples" of 1916 as well as the shading in Cezanne's apple still life work, the children traced a plate and used watercolor for the first layer of their pieces. We talked about what a "bird's eye view" was so they understood the perspective of this project a bit more. Once dry, they created apples by making prints with paper cups and then filling them in with their paint brushes. Since I have children ages 5-9, this was a nice way for everyone to feel successful. They created shadows by painting a "C" shape on one side of their apples as well as their plates. Stems were added with Sharpie and then shaded with a bit of charcoal. And last, they used chalk pastel and white chalk to add some additional shading and highlights.

8 comments:

  1. These are marvelous,

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  2. Oh my gosh!!! these are amazing!! Can't wait to try these in the fall!

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  3. Hi Mary -- This takes me back to when we tried this lesson, too. I like the way your kids made the shadows more prominent with paint. I was timid about my kids using paint for the shadows and had them use oil pastels or crayons instead for that step. It was my one regret because our shadows were not dark enough. I also love the highlights with white chalk and pastels -- I'll definitely try that next time too. Bravo to your artists!

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks all! These were done by K-4th graders. Tracing the plate ("But Miss Mary, you said you never use tracers." - there are always exceptions :) and printing the apples was helpful in leveling the playing field, so to speak.)

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    2. These are gorgeous, I'm totally stealing this one!

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  5. Beauties. I like your idea of printing the apple shape and filling in, very smart and time saving.

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  6. I did this lesson too:
    http://useyourcolouredpencils.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/apple-still-life.html

    I loved it - but seeing yours definitely makes me want to try it again with an older group of students. I love the colours in yours too!

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