Cezanne Inspired Still-Life with Fruit

I've been teaching this lesson for the last couple of years and I keep changing it. This year I really focused on getting the kids to 'draw' the actual still-life, instead of letting them invent a still-life by tracing circles. I think drilling this early is going to make a big difference...

Day One:
We define "still-life" in our idea books. They draw a still-life on their own (pre-assessment) then I draw it with them. We compare our drawings and see who was using their "artist eyes" to really observe the objects.

Then I let them trace a plate to get a big circle...and then they draw the fruit and paint with warm colors.

Day Two:
We write about contrasting colors in our idea books then draw two columns...one side warm colors and the other cool colors. Then we draw a pattern for our "table" on our painting from day one. They get to paint with cool colors to show contrast. I like to talk about how "water is your friend" when you are painting....as a result, they create some value without really knowing it. So they're paintings have a little more depth. I have also started letting them use the smaller, nicer brushes...so those little brushstrokes look really nice.

Here is a really nice painting...not a still life at all...but hey, if the art teacher can't appreciate a good painting, then why are we here? 

Day Three: Adding shadows and highlights. 

I got the oil pastels out to bring some "definition" to these paintings...cause I guess I can't live without line. We added some extra pizazz/patterns/designs. Then I demonstrated how to do an "easy shadow" and a quick highlight...we outlined in black to bring some more boldness to our paintings. 

Overall...some of my favorite still-lifes yet.

Cezanne Inspired Still-Life with Apples

We look at several still lifes by Cezanne and Matisse for this 1st grade project. Day one is drawing the plate (I let some trace large butter lids...) and we draw at least 4 apples from a "bird's eye view"...

I put out trays of warm colors in tempera and they paint their apples after outlining with black sharpie or black oil pastel.

Day two we paint the plate and the table with contrasting cool colors. I used watercolors this year...and I demonstrated how to add shadows. I love how younger kids almost grasp the idea of a shadow but they inevitably make it wayyyyy to dark and it takes over whatever they so carefully painted earlier that week. Oh shadows....ruining paintings for years now. :)

I love these though.

Technology Inclusion: I use the ladibug (document camera) to project a still-life from my desk onto the screen. This really helps them all see the same viewpoint and they can observe realistic colors in the apples while they're painting.

Here's my watercolor drawer. I use Prang watercolors...with a couple of Crayola refills mixed in there. Each student gets their own tray and returns it when they are finished. On this particular day, with one of my worst classes, I walked by this drawer towards the end of class after everyone had cleaned up and noticed the watercolors were all perfectly returned and all in very neat rows. I applauded them for being so considerate with the art supplies and was genuinely proud of my little monsters!

Love some of these creative backgrounds/tablecloths by FIRST GRADERS!

Here's some of the Cezanne and Matisse paintings we describe, analyze, compare/contrast at the beginning of this lesson.