Henri Rousseau meets clay

Awhile ago I introduced some students to the work of Henri Rousseau.  He is a great artist to use when teaching background, middle ground, and foreground.  And who doesn't like creating art with animals in it?

I gave each student some clay and asked them to create a tile.

9 year old

Once the student came up with the animal of their choice, I asked them to consider the environment where they would find the animal. 

Then they created a background by rolling different plants and leaves I had brought from my garden.  This helped create a texture on which to start building up their tile.

6 year old

Once they were happy with their background, each student began to think about the middle ground, which would be their animals.

7 year old

And finally they added more environment foliage to create a foreground.

We used air dry clay, so once it was dry the students painted their works with acrylic paint and I sealed them with a high gloss varnish.

9 year old

10 year old

I have done this project on paper before, but this was the first time I tried it with clay.  I find the kids really enjoy Rousseau's work and have fun creating jungle artwork all their own inspired by him.  I was quite happy with the results of trying this project in clay too.  I'm sure I'll visit this project again in the future.

5 year old

7 year old

I think if Rousseau saw these, he's be quite charmed by these inspired works of clay.