Painting Lessons
“Art Is Always Right, Art Is Never Wrong”
Art Lesson Inspired By Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse: One of the greatest modern
artists, revered as a colorist.
Print: Interior with Eggplants
Artist: Henri Matisse
Grade Three and Grade Six
Lesson plans found in Art Docent handbook
Open Window Lesson
Have students do a simple sketch of a window
with shutters, floor and walls.
Have them sketch free hand so it looks imperfect
and Matisse like.
You could either project the elevation of the
window on the active board or do a directed
draw on the white board.
Add patterns to the walls & floors.
Draw a scene outside the window such as a sea
with boats or a garden scene.
Outline pattern repeats and window with
ultra-fine point sharpie.
Paint with watercolors.
Paint with happy simple colors.
Use any colors you wish.
Encourage students to use wrong colors
Like sky in pink, grass in blue etc.
For younger grades I would have them simplify
the scene outside of the window.
They can also enlarge the scale of the pattern
repeats.
This project works well for second thru sixth
grade.
It is the perfect color lesson painting.
Also teaches pattern repeat.
Art Vocabulary: Pattern Repeat
Pattern is an object that repeats again and again.
Art Vocabulary: Fauvism
Comes from the French word fauve, which
means wild beasts. Fauvism was the name of an
art movement Matisse was part of. The work
was savage & primitive, and used strong vivid
colors.
Henri Matisse
(1869- 1954)
85 years old
Considered one of the greatest modern artists.
Was famous for his use of color.
He liked ALL colors
Used simple, happy ,rich & bright colors.
Colors had specific meanings to Matisse:
Blue = truth & heaven
Orange = love & gentleness
Red = excitement & fire
Green = growth & change
He also painted fanciful patterns, flattened abstract
forms & graceful lines.
His paintings make you feel good.
He worked hard to create art like a comfortable
armchair, in which to relax.
Matisse wasn’t interested in art as a child, so he had
to work hard to catch up. In art school he was
instructed to paint carefully drawn figures and objects
in dark colors.
He kept thinking there might be something new he
could do to freshen his own paintings.
He had a hard time in art school, fortunately one of
his teachers took special interest in him and
encouraged him to try new things and use his
imagination as much as possible.
He erased and re-drew his whole career.
His work was modern/radical because it didn’t deal
with big themes like religion, history, morals or
philosophy.
He believed that beauty for pleasures sake was
culturally important.