Wayne Thiebaud: Sweets

WAYNE THIEBAUD (1920 - )

Cakes, 1963

Pronounced: Tee-Bo

Art Style: Contemporary

Activity: Pastel

Materials: cardstock for template, scissors to cut the cardstock, large white paper, sharpies, and chalk pastels

Meet the Artist: Wayne Thiebaud is one of the California greats - famous for his paintings of beautifully arranged baked goods. This is a fun lesson for kids because it is so easy to relate to his happy art, and it's exciting to imagine row upon row of delectable cookies, pies, cakes, donuts, etc. It's also easy to customize for different ages. Slideshow here - (some simple facts about Mr. Thiebaud are included in the slide presentation). Additionally you can read about his life here and here.

Discussion: Focusing on Cakes, ask the discussion questions - (1) What's going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

To deepen the discussion, ideas you may want to bring out with the kids: (1) Thiebaud is a meticulous painter. Notice how all the shadows are exactly where they should be. Also notice how the shadows are all the same cool color, even if the cake that makes the shadow is bright (like that yellow cake in the very front). (2) Shapes - do you see any repeated shapes in this painting? (You may want to scroll through the other slides, and point out how repetition of shapes is something that Mr. Thiebaud does quite a bit - the pie painting...)

Activity: pass out cardstock squares and have the kids draw a shape of their choice with sharpie to be their template. Have them think of something sweet a la the paintings they saw in the slideshow - a lollipop, donut, cupcake, slice of pie, etc. (To do this in younger grades, you could have the templates already cut depending on the time you have). Then have the kids place the template on their white paper and outline their shape with sharpie. Have them repeat as they like on the page: show them how they can make rows, or whatever kind of pattern they like. Once the shapes are drawn, the children are to use the chalk pastels to fill in their shapes. Encourage older kids to include shadows, reminding them that the shadows all fall the same direction. (You might want to draw an example of this on the board)

Student Work: