5th Grade

Matisse Collagecolor, shapes, rhythm, movementStudents will exercise their scissor-skills, learn a few things about artistic composition, practice planning their own simple compositions, and learn about the famous painter and collage artist Henri Matisse.

• Materials

– construction paper 12x18 - a variety of colors

– construction paper scraps

– No. 2 pencil (sharpened)

– eraser

– scissors

– color wheel (put up on board in front of class)

– glue sticks

• Class Periods - 2

• Set Up

– Before class enters, give each place pencil, eraser, scissors, one sheet 12x18 construction paper

- Place piles of paper scraps and rectangular scraps of various sizes on each table grouping

- Have glue sticks ready for distribution, but do not do so until each child has worked with the paper scraps

- this will keep them cutting the shapes they need and wait to glue until design is laid out.

★ Make sure the students put their name and date on every project!

Henri Matisse

1897

1897

1900

1906

Icarus. 1947

Snowflowers. 1951

Selfportrait. 1945

Matisse making paper cut outs

vertical or horizontal

1.

2.

3.

DISCUSSIONHenri Matisse (On-REE Ma-TEES)1869–1954FrenchMatisse didn't start painting until he was about 20 years old.He studied art in Paris where he painted mostly landscapes and still lifes.

When he was about 30, he discovered the Impressionists, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Matisse’s style changed completely following this discovery and color took center-stage in his paintings.

This love of color evolved into an art movement called Fauvism, in which natural scenes are portrayed in unnatural, usually extremely bright, colors. The word Fauvism is french for "wild beasts". The subjects in the paintings were shown in a simple way,

By the end of his life Matisse was thoroughly interested in patterns and from this interest came his collages. Collage is a French word that means to glue. His collages were made from boldly hand-painted paper cut into shapes, Matisse’s collages were usually large works of simplicity.

Procedure(print this page to teach from)

It is very interesting to note that he painted all his life

but is best known for the paper cut outs he began

doing when he was 73. He started making collages

because he became very sick and couldn’t stand up in

front of his easel. So from his wheelchair and his bed,

with help from an assistant, he would make large

collages. He painted his own paper and drew shapes

on the ceiling from his bed with a piece of charcoal

connected to a long stick. He would also cut out the

shapes and stick them to the wall. (Look at the image

on the wall behind him.)

DISCUSSIONThe Color WheelThe color wheel is a chart of colors of the visible spectrum that is used to show how colors relate to each other. It is made up of three primary colors, three secondary colors, and six tertiary colors or intermediate colors. Primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are colors that can not be mixed by any other colors. Secondary colors (purple, green, and orange) are formed by mixing two primary colors together. Tertiary colors (red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange) are formed by combining a primary color with an adjacent secondary color. Colors evoke feelings. Blue evokes quiet moods and red evokes cheerfulness. Blue is associated with coolness and red is associated with warmth.

Procedure(print this page to teach from)

Contrasting ColorsComplementary colors are

opposite each other on the color wheel. Two

complementary colors gives high-contrast, by using a

warm color with a cool color.

LESSON

The paper (12x18) can be vertical or horizontal.

1.Cut out a large rectangle or use a rectangular scrap in a contrasting color.

•More interesting if it’s not a perfect rectangle. Ex. wide or narrow

•This will be glued down to divide their background into three rectangular

shapes. The colored stripe does not have to be exactly in the middle.

1.Use scissors to cut out simple organic shapes in the strong, bold colored

construction paper from scraps. If there are no scraps, use full sheets.

•Cut out a variety of sizes from small to large. Refer to these two

•Suggest gluing down a small square or rectangle of another color behind

their cutouts to create more depth.

•Remind them to use complimentary colors whenever possible.

•Use curvilinear shapes in addition to straight ones.

•If they want to do a person, strike several poses and have them cut out the

figure creating a human-like form for their collage. (See Matisse print of

Icarus) .

1.Once you have enough shapes to complete their design, arrange their

shapes on the paper.

Procedure(print this page to teach from)

Pass out the glue sticks.

Glue shapes to their paper.

Be sure all corners and edges are sufficiently

glued.

vocabulary• still life - a picture of inanimate objects

• Impressionism - an art movement who work pictured appearances by strokes of unmixed colors to give the impression of reflected light

• Fauvism - an art movement launched in 1905 whose work was characterized by bright and non-natural colors and simple forms; influenced the expressionists

• pattern - repetition of any thing - shapes, lines, color

•Paper cut out collage – a drawing with scissors

• complimentary colors - colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel p.

• abstract – not realistic, but an imaginative, creative, expressive way to show the essence of something. (Kid Words: Weird, twisted, crazy, strange)

•curvilinear – A line that curves

•Shape - the outward outline of a form. Basic geometric shapes include circles, squares and triangles.

• organic shapes - An irregular shape, or one that might be found in nature (butterfly, seaweed, human figure, etc)

• geometric shape - made with straight lines or shapes from geometry, including circle, ovals, triangles, rectangles, squares