Matisse Goldfish


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Matisse is one of my favorite artists and so I am always looking for new projects to share him with my students. This is a class I did this summer for kids ages 9 and up. I bought some new watercolor paper to try and it was so fun to work with. (Canson XL Watercolor pads)  The sheets are 18x24, and 140 pound paper weight so you can erase a lot and it takes more abuse than a lighter weight paper. We also used Dick Blick liquid watercolors which are so vibrant. The liquid watercolors are so much easier to use for the larger paper format. The kids don't have to stop and mix more color and so they had more success with their washes. We did a sample drawing first on a smaller sheet of paper, looking at Matisse's original painting.I also gave them each a coloring sheet picture of the painting. I had them simplify their drawings and leave out some of the background foliage and details. We did the drawing and painting step by step, taking time to talk about proportion and reflections. This was a great lesson and they all ended up with some beautiful paintings.











Comments

  1. Thanks for visiting my blog! Matisse has been absolutely my FAVORITE for as long as I can remember. If you click on the label 'Matisse' on the right side of my blog, it will take you to a couple of other Matisse lessons I did as well. My students worked from an actual still life setup. Your students' paintings are lovely!

    Meanwhile, scrolling through your blog, I discovered your Laurel Burch cats. She's another favorite, and last year I blogged about some Laurel Burch style papier-mache cats my students made, as well as some fabulous paintings made by my 2nd graders. The paintings are here: http://plbrown.blogspot.com/2012/04/here-comes-sun-2nd-graders-laurel-burch.html

    To see the cats, for some reason my Laurel Burch label isn't showing, but if you use the label papier-mache you will find them eventually! They are pictured in a lot of posts, because they took too long to make.

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