Organic Shape Drawing with Scissors and Matisse

Discussion

Organic Shape? What is organic shape? 

Where do you hear the word organic? 

Where do you find organic shapes? 

Matisse
 Drawing with scissors

He worked very large, we will work smaller

Show his work

What do you think of this piece? Color? Shapes? 

What would you do first if you were inside the artwork? 

Henri Matisse
1869-1954
French Painter,
Studied law until he was 21

Mother gave him a paint box after surgery and he discovered painting

He returned to work, and every morning before work, he attended drawing classes; at lunch time he would paint for an hour or so, and then return to work. After work he would paint till night fell. It was his life. 

In 1891 set off for Paris. 

Matisse began his journey of studies which ultimately lead him to his love of line, shape and color. 

Matisse felt that his greatest influence had been the work of the artist Cezanne (1839 – 1906, French). 

In the 1950‘s, Matisse began creating paintings using paint and paper cut outs. 

In his last years, as he aged and fell ill, Matisse continued to paint, this time on the walls of his room, using a piece of charcoal attached to the end of a bamboo pole. He painted until his death in 1954. 

Matisse had strong feelings about only one thing, the act of painting. 

The purpose of these pictures, he always asserted, was to give pleasure. 

For Matisse, painting was the rhythmic arrangement of line and color on a flat plane. 

He had created the technique of striking contrasts, unmixed hues, flat planes of color (similar to Gauguin, 1848 – 1903, French) 

expressive brush strokes (similar to Van Gogh, 1853 – 1890, Dutch). 

Light was expressed, not in the method of the Impressionists, but with a harmony of intensely covered surfaces. 

PROJECT: Create a matisse style organic shape composition

Step1: glue one large block of color to your white sheet

Step2: glue a second block of color to your white sheet

Step3: begin to cut organic shapes in all colors and glue them to your paper

Step4: create a composition from your random shapes

Step5: pull the piece together by adding smaller pieces in a pattern

Materials: 

Glue stick

Construction paper

Scissors