Cezanne's Apples with 1st Grade

Artist Inspiration: Paul Cezanne (above) and Henri Matisse (below)



Blog Inspiration: http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2012/03/apple-still-life.html

You can see all the steps laid out nicely on this blog. I just didn't use spoons to paint the apples.

Day Two:

We talked about CONTRAST in our Idea Books...colored (using crayons) our apple sketch in our idea books with warm colors (just like we painted on day one) and then added a shadow under each apple. Then we colored the plate and table with cool colors to show "contrast". 

Once they understood the process, they painted their big apples with watercolors. 

They turned out great! 

Here is a student who absent on day one...I gave them a 9x12 paper so they could catch up. 

I demonstrated how to add a pattern to the 'tablecloth' if they wanted to take the 'art challenge'. 

Here's a shadow that got a little greedy. 

Also, here's another option for Day 2...Collage
I was going to just let them color the plate and table with oil pastels when one of my bright 1st graders suggested that we cut the plates out. And I thought..."great idea!" so I grabbed a handful of construction paper and let them choose a background color. I also had the oil pastels out already so we added a little pattern to the 'tablecloth' paper. Then as I was rushing through the art closet getting paper I noticed some super shiny mirror-like paper that I had never used and immediately thought, "silverware!".

This awesome mirror-y paper just so happened to be like a giant sticker which was fun for the kids to use.

Great day for improv in the art room!

This was also a fun opportunity to discuss how to set a table with the kids.