Friday, March 8, 2013

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

8 comments:

  1. Mary, I really like the contrast of the soft shadows of blended pastels/ charcoal with the sharp patterns achieved with the oil pastels -- very cool!!

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  2. So beautiful with the bold patterns and colors

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  3. Can see why you were so pleased with this project. Mom

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  4. Beautiful results Mary.
    I love the boldness of colors and patterns.

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  5. Thanks for your nice comments! This was a favorite lesson of mine.

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  6. Love these! What is the size of the paper? And is each piece made separately then glued to the plate and background?

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    1. The paper is approximately 12X18. Yes, the apples and plates were drawn separately with chalk pastels on colored construction paper and glued to their watercolor backgrounds.

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  7. Love these! What is the size of the paper? And is each piece made separately then glued to the plate and background?

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