Musings with Munchkins and Matisse 

"What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things...it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface." - Brancusi

I was privileged to have taught two sweet little girl "munchkins" after school each week.  One was in second grade and the other in fourth.  Each year matters developmentally and, although they are both interested, interesting, and talented, the outcome was uniquely their own!

First step was the inspiration.  We enjoyed lolly gagging over Matisse's masterpiece, Woman In A Purple Coat.  

Woman In A Purple Coat, Matisse, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

We perused other books about Matisse and analyzed his style.

Open Window, Collioure, Matisse, National Gallery of Art, Washington

The little girls were really struck by Matisse's inside/outside, planes, and happy colors in his painting Open Window, Collioure.

The art room was tweaked here and there until it was converted into our own makeshift Matisse-esque scene.

Here is the second grader's work in progress...

2nd Grader Working Toward Completion

...and the fourth grader at step one.  The photo is not too clear, but the only one at this stage.

4th Grader's First Steps

Each girl plowed on week after week as they became very acquainted with every straight line, curve, organic and geometric shape and form until finally....they finished!!!!

View Through the Art Room's French Doors, 2nd Grader

Did you find Woman in A Purple Coat in each artwork? And the good news is.......

View Through the Art Room's French Doors, 4th Grader

.....they both won medals!  

Congratulations, Girls!  Thank you, Matisse!

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." - Camille Pissarro

Renaissance Reconstructed, ReMixed, and ReDone

A portrait does not merely record someone's features, however, but says something about who he or she is, offering a vivid sense of a real person's presence." - Metropolitan Museum of Art website

The ancient Greeks and Romans depicted important people in profile on coins.  As time past this individual likeness became a one size fits all in the figure type.  Then in the 15th c., Eureka!  Portraits that actually showed a likeness to the sitter were reborn!  This was a reflection of the humanist interest in man-each individual man, woman, girl, and boy!  

Approx. 54-68 AD

Most portraits painted during the Renaissance followed a conventional format.  The profile view of the ancient past was again employed in the 15th c. 

Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement, ca. 1440-44,  Fra Fillipo Lippi (Italian, Florentine), tempera on wood

Often the sitter is in the foreground and in the background we are presented with an enchanting Italian landscape which properly diminishes in space!  Check out that true to life blue mist!

Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro, ca. 1465-66, Piero della Francesca 

Renaissance artists soon began to use the three quarter view as well, allowing the viewer to be more engaged with the sitter.  Sometimes a window sill was included with items or objects that symbolized something about the subject. And keep noticing that gorgeous landscape!

Portrait of a Lady, c. 1490,  Domenico Ghirlandaio

My 5th grade Renaissance scholars needed a new challenge this year.  So I got to thinking, why not roll all these concepts into one long art history and studio lesson?  First we learned the art history basics.  Then the students were instructed to come up with a thoughtful question on the topic.  Next, technology!  A Face Time date with "Mr. Martinez" from Ars Opulenta (ars-opulenta.com).  By the way, you too, can contact him for a technology instruction date. Each student used my i phone to ask him their pre-approved questions and each answer invoked hearty discussion and often many giggles as the students learned about clothing laws and hair dying techniques among other things!


Next the studio part.  The kids selected printed images of Renaissance portraits by the masters.  They were asked to use them as a jumping off point to sketch a landscape on water color paper.  We spent several classes getting acquainted with water color painting. 

5th Grade Student Work 2011-2012

Next the kids made "complicated paper" a la Anne Bagby www.annebagby.com.  This involves designing and cutting EZ Cut ( http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-e-z-cut-printing-blocks/) and printing paper. This paper became a new set of Renaissance clothing for their figures.  To finish off the "edited" portraits they added faux wood, scrapbook paper frames reminiscent of the casements sometimes depicted during the Renaissance.

5th Grade Student Work

The 5th graders are now begging for a field trip to Italy!

"... Just to sit and look at the landscape. An inner quietness. After dinner, to sit on the back porch and look at the light. No need for talking. For any kind of communication."- Lee Krasner