Doodlebug Dabblings: Matisse inspired trees

Last night the kids showed up to the studio and things definitely weren't the same.

Tables were on their sides and paintbrushes and charcoal were taped to long sticks.

The kids could hardly wait for everyone to show up so they could figure out what was happening.

I created the project inspired by Henri Matisse's artwork, Tree 1951 done with ink, charcoal and white gouache.

I also shared with the kids a few pictures of the interesting way Matisse painted later in life, when his health began to fail, as it was also part of the inspiration for the project.

After sharing some pictures of Matisse's works throughout his long career, we settled on his paper cuttings and drawings. I asked the kids to describe what they noticed about the works and discussed how they might interpret trees and leaves. Then we studied his artwork, Tree 1951 and discussed what they noticed in the work.

Then they found a spot to paint in the topsy turvy studio.

Starting with the India Ink, I asked them to create three stem shapes. I stressed shape, not line. I told them not to worry about if the ink line skipped and left blank areas as we would be going back with the charcoal to complete the line.

I used large pastel paper for this project which worked really well with the mediums. I was elated as I wanted these works to be not only large but also not on white paper. To say they had fun with the unusual way they were using the paint brushes and charcoal would be an understatement.

There was lots of giggles and animated chatter. Here's a very short video of the kids having a very good time while creating their art.

Once they had the ink and charcoal on the paper, I gave each child a small dollop of white gouache for them to add to the work as they pleased.

The final results were quite lovely. The kids had just the best time learning to paint a long distance from their paper, albeit not quite as far away as Matisse painted. I'm guessing they won't forget this project for a long time.

But the best part? At the end of the night the kids started throwing out request for other artist they would like to use for inspiration. Isn't that wonderful?! I loved they already have a good foundation of Art History and my brain is already working on project ideas based on their request.

Until then, I'm just going to enjoy these beautiful trees inspired by one of my favorite artist, Matisse.