Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 4

We have two weeks until school starts and I am not ready.  We are enjoying these nice slow days of summer (it's too hot to step outside!).  The boys are busy playing toys they normally don't have time for and doing these weekly art projects I planned way back when school was in session.  This one took us some time because I was just not in my groove.  Coming back from vacation and stepping back into reality (well, the reality of summer) was hard.  We took it slow and finally just finished it up yesterday.  Some projects are like that.  But the result of this one just makes my heart so happy.  My favorite art projects are usually those that include some paint and a paintbrush (or two), so when I planned these art projects I wanted to make sure we were not only studying artists, their styles, but also different mediums.  Watercolors tend to be my favorite because they are a super easy clean up.  This project used a little bit of watercolor to produce a certain effect, but other than that, it was paper and scissors and a lot of fun! 

This week, we are studying Matisse, who started out painting beautiful paintings that resemble those of Monet, that included landscapes and still lifes.  Later, he began to experiment with brighter, bolder colors.  His lines were sharper, more modern.  As he grew older, he found he couldn't paint anymore, so he started cutting out paper shapes and placing them on paper, using both the negative and positive space from his cut outs, as well as taking advantage of contrasting colors.  Matisse's works are so full of life and color, making him a really fun artist for kids to study! 

 We started out by painting a piece of paper with blue watercolor.  We wanted to give the blue a water-like look, so we layered a sheet of  plastic wrap over the top while it dried. 

  After it dried, we started cutting out shapes out of bright colors for our background and gluing them down on a piece of white card stock paper. 

 Then, using some dark navy blue card stock (we just used what we had in my stash), the kids cut out shapes for a stool.  Then, using the paper they water colored (now dry), they folded it in half and cut out a vase/fish bowl shape.  I won't lie, the urge to cut out snowflakes was strong at this point. . . just ask Weston!  They glued all those on their paper and then cut out some fish to put inside their vase.  After that, we just cut out shapes, using both the negative and positive spaces and filled our paper squares. 

 I really love how they turned out!  With this art project, we read the two books above (I'll link them and others below).  The bottom, Meet Matisse, is incredibly wordy.  So we skimmed through it together, gathering some facts about Matisse and looking at some of his art.  The second book, Matisse's Garden, is a fun book that combines a cute story with beautiful illustrations about Matisse cutting out shapes with prints of his actual art work woven in between. 


 Books about Matisse:
Meet Matisse
Matisse's Garden
Drawing with Scissors
Blue and Other Colors
The Iridescense of Birds

 Henri's Scissors
Matisse: The King of Color
When Pigasso Met Mootisse


 Kids Art Challenge:
Week 1:Kandinsky
Week 2:Seurat
Week 3: Picasso

This post was inspired by this post. 

Don't forget to post a picture and use the hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge 

Happy Creating!