Matisse Meets Cezanne Still Lifes

 

                           


                           

I saw a version of this lesson first on Artsonia

My group of 3rd grade Mini Masters looked at the still life work of Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse. From Cezanne, I wanted them to appreciate his love for light and shadow, tone and shade. And from Matisse, I wanted them to take away his love for color and pattern. (Of course, each artist is obviously worthy of a singular spotlight. And this is only simplifying aspects of their work, but I enjoy marrying the two artists' styles together - especially given my short, 5 week course.)

My students started by observing green, yellow, and red apples, and created contour drawings of them in different angles. They added color to their colored construction paper work using chalk pastels and charcoal shadows. They created a plate or basket in the same way.

For the Matisse background portion, I offered a variety of brightly colored patterned fabric as inspiration and encouraged them to become textile designers using oil pastels and watercolor. "This is not the time to be matchie matchie, poo poo". They had never heard this term, and were of course cracking up. But looking at Matisse's vibrant work, they saw it was fueled by a variety of patterns and colors.

I think these pieces came together beautifully. Nice job kids!

See Sofia, I told you it was frame worthy! : D

Here is a link to a similar lesson I did several years ago.
http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2010/11/cezanne-meets-matisse-apple-still-life.html