Poinsettias Flower Art: Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy, Pink Bunch, 1940

student work:

About the Artist: Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), "the painter of joy", was a french Fauvist painter.  Fauvism was an outgrowth of Impressionism (<- think Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir). As a young art student in Paris, Dufy attended exhibits of the Impressionists and was influenced by their loosening use of color and form, but when he saw Matisse's groundbreaking paintings, drenched in bright colors, he knew he'd found his people: Les Fauves ("the wild animals"). Matisse's Fauves emphasized bright colors, wild brushstrokes, bold contrasts, and were a step closer to abstraction than the Impressionists. Dufy's work throughout his career was characterized by its optimism, color, and beauty, even in his later years as he branched off into fabric and stationary design.

Using this simple slideshow of Dufy's work, discuss using our questions: What do you see? What makes you say that? What more can you find? If you have the opportunity in your discussion you might to bring out the following topics:

• color - can you find complementary colors in these paintings? What do they do when they are placed next to each other? How do the colors make the paintings feel?
• repetition - do you see where he uses the same colors or shapes over and over to create a pattern?
• realistic or abstract? Was Dufy trying to paint the way the flowers actually looked? Or the way the flowers felt to him? (Sometimes paint can capture something that words can't!)

This project uses Dufy's loose and colorful flowers as inspiration. The original activity comes from Deep Space Sparkle (click there for more examples).

Supplies: red yellow white tempera paints, blue and green tempera or liquid watercolor paint, paper plates, q-tips, foam brushes, watercolor paper, sponges cut into leaf shapes - 1 per kid (and, totally optional - maybe a real poinsettia plant to use as a visual aid)

Activity: 

• using a q-tip, paint little centers of the poinsettia plants on your papers
• use the leaf sponges, dip into red/white paint and make petals around the centers
• paint a background color with the foam brush that contrasts with the red flowers (green or blue) around your page full of poinsettias

SaveSave
SaveSave

Cezanne's Apples

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Apples and Biscuits, 1895

Pronounced: Say-Zon

Art Style: Post-Impressionism

Art Terms:

Activity: Painting

Medium: Watercolor and Tempera Paints

Materials: Watercolor paper, pan watercolors, red tempera paints, paint brushes, cups/bowls for water, sharpies, paper plates for tracing (and wipes! This lesson was so fun but on the messy side.)

This lesson is based on an activity I found on fine lines' blog.

Meet the Artist: Cezanne is considered by many, including Picasso, to be the true father of modern art. On the Metropolitan Museum of Art website there is an amazing, really fun interactive piece on Cezanne and his apples. If you have a smartphone or ipad, I'd recommend bringing the site up on that, and using the ladybug to project it to the kids, using that to guide your discussion (there might be a way to connect your device with a cord, but you can just actually stick your device under the ladybug, turn on the ladybug, and line it up to project the screen, without any cords). Take a minute or two to check it out the Met site here. Other brief information about Paul Cezanne can be found here. 

Discussion: Here is the slideshow I used to discuss his work with the kids (although I wish I'd used the Met one instead - I forgot my phone that day). We discussed the paintings using the questions: (1) What do you see? (2) What makes you say that? and (3) What more can you find?

Some of the things we specifically discussed were how Cezanne's apples are not all plain red, but have lots of different colors and reflections and even shapes. We also discussed shadows. Look at the paintings and notice with the kids how Cezanne represents the shadows of the apples.

At the end of the slideshow, there is a photograph of apples on a plate. This is what we painted, for our still life.

Activity: For younger kids, have them use the paper plate to trace a circle on the watercolor paper with the sharpie. (Older kids can just draw a large circle). Then, using the thick red tempera or acrylic paint, have them paint their apples. You might want to remind them to leave a bit of white in the apple to represent the reflected light. Then, using their pan watercolors, they can do the tablecloth, the plate, etc. Once the red dries a bit some adventurous kids might even want to layer in some other colors onto the apples. Some kids might also want to add shadows.

Tile Wall Variation (requires use of markers only on paper: Use a paper plate to trace a circle (for younger kids) with a black marker or sharpie. Then have them use marker to draw and color in their apples. For the background, have them either color in everything a solid color, or make an interesting pattern (the main goal being color or design filling in the whole background for an interesting tile result). Look at the bottom of this post for a picture I found online of a Cezanne-ish apple project I saw done executed in marker, with a patterned background. 

Student Work:

Tile Variation example: 

(source here)

Van Gogh: Starry Night

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

Starry Night, 1889

Art Style: Post-Impressionism

Activity: Paper Collage

Materials: black/blue construction paper, colored construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, gold paint, brushes, cup for water

(this art lesson was adapted with permission from a lesson by Michelle Smit, Duniway Elementary)

Meet the Artist: Many consider Van Gogh to be one of the most expressive and beautiful painters who ever lived, but during his life he only sold one painting (for not much money) and considered himself a failure. We have a Smart About Art book featuring Vincent Van Gogh in the cabinet. If you have time, you might want to read it (or parts of it) to the kids - they typically love it. Other great information can be found here and here. 

Discussion: Focusing on Starry Night (slideshow here), ask the kids the discussion questions - (1) What is going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

To deepen the discussion, points you might want to bring out: (1) Have you ever seen the wind, or cold? We see the effects of the wind (trees blowing, etc), but usually can't see the air itself moving. How did Vincent show the air moving? How does that make you feel? What temperature do think it is in this painting? (2) Vincent used a lot of curved lines to communicate motion. Notice how things that don't move (houses, etc.) are made with straight lines while the things that do move (trees, sky, etc.) are made from curved lines. 

Activity: Have students create the Starry Night village scene using shapes cut from the paper scraps. When they are ready, have them glue the shapes in a row along the lower edge of the dark background paper. Think houses, churches, trees, etc. When they are finished gluing, have students paint stars in the night sky using the gold paint. For a Van Gogh style, they may paint dots of concentric circles around the stars, then add a second ring of dotted brush strokes around the first ring, moving out from the star into the sky. The stars will begin to look like their sparkles are spilling light into the night sky. Make as many rings around the stars and moon as desired.

Tile Wall (Marker Only) Variation: I think starry skies are so pretty, and would look really nice on our school tile wall. To do this project using only markers, I'd have the kids look at their blank paper, and then start by drawing in (1) a horizon, (2) trees, (3) houses, and (4) sky elements - stars, moon, wind. As they are drawing, reference the Starry Night picture on the slide to emphasize how Van Gogh used curvilinear lines to show movement and emotion, and encourage them to try using these kind of lines in their drawing. Then have them color the drawings in with marker.

Student Work: