Artists that Inspire Us

Welcome to the first of my monthly posts as a member of the new Art Ed Blogger Network!  A group of bloggers have all gotten together to post on the same day each month all on the same topic.  You can find links to all the other blogs in the network at the bottom of this post.  Have fun checking them all out!   

 For our first month, we've selected the topic "Artists That Inspire Us"  I've chosen three artists to talk about today: Henri Matisse, Laurel Burch, and Dan Reeder.  I hope you'll join us all each month!

HENRI MATISSE
On Facebook, I recently shared a pic of a new painting I was working on, and a friend told me it reminded him of a Matisse.  To me, that was the ultimate comment; it's no secret I'm a huge fan.  I am always smitten by artwork with vibrant,cheerful, and rich color, and the playful use of patterns and shapes.  Matisse just has it all for me, along with a joyousness of spirit that makes me happy.  Which is why, I suppose, I've used his work as inspiration for so many art lessons over my years of teaching, a number of which I've posted about on the blog and will link for you in this post.

First up is one of my favorites Matisse lessons: 3rd grade "Fauve Fauves" - wild beasts (we used African animals as our inspiration) painted in wild 'fauve' colors!  Ive blogged about versions of the project HERE and HERE.  And my 2nd graders made inventive collages of 'fauve fauves' using various scrap materials.  I posted about them HERE.

And Matisse was the inspiration for my 4th graders' wonderful still life paintings (example above) that I shared HERE, and my second graders' still life work (below) posted HERE. 

And first graders used Matisse's 'painting with scissors' process as inspiration for the colorful and textural pieces that I shared HERE. 

You can find a link to another 'painting with scissors' project that I developed, for Pacon, HERE. You'll have to go there to see what it is!

LAUREL BURCH

It is many of the same characteristics found in Matisse's work, the rich joyous colors and use of decorative pattern, that excite me in Laurel Burch's work.  I love that her work is so commercially accessible, too. And just as Matisse faced physical adversity (we know his physical limitations, due to his health, are what inspired the 'painting with scissors' body of work), so did Laurel Burch.  She lived a life of pain, with a disease that caused her to have fragile bones that broke easily.  Yet the pain is never visible in her vibrant and joyous artwork.  We looked at her Fantastic Felines as inspiration for these gorgeous papier-mache cats, made by my 5th graders. I blogged about them a few times, including HERE and HERE. 

Her Celestial Dreams were the inspiration for these works by grade 2.  I posted about them HERE. 

DAN REEDER
When I first began teaching elementary school, after 8 years teaching high school, I was terrified.  What do elementary art students do?  I thought "they make stuff out of papier-mache, of course!"  Unfortunately, I'd never used papier-mache in my life.  While at a state art ed convention, I came across a book named The Simple Screamer, that outlined the process for making a goofy-looking papier-mache monster.  The book was by Dan Reeder ("Dan the Monster Man"), and I was hooked.  A couple of students and I worked together to build a silly 'screamer' using his instructions.  Dan's hints on the process really got me going and helped me be successful.  When I discovered that Dan was actually a teacher (he's now retired; he taught 5th grade), and had a passion for making papier-mache dragons, it excited me even more.  You can find out more about his and his work on his website, Gourmet Paper Mache.  Here's another one of Dan's books. Many of you have probably seen his work, in particular his time lapse videos of the construction of his dragons.   

Since that time, papier-mache has definitely become one of my passions, both to do myself, and to teach.  Over the years, from time to time I've touched base with Dan via his blog. I contacted him a couple of days ago.  Knowing he lives in Seattle, I thought maybe there'd be a way to tour his studio while I'm in the city for the NAEA convention. But his studio is in his basement, and since he retired from teaching, he no longer lets people tour his studio.  I'm disappointed but I'm retired too, so I understand.  I'm hoping there's some places in the city where I can actually get to see one of his dragons or other creations.  By the way, while my process wasn't identical to his, he inspired me to build Lucy, the dragon in my art room!  Yes, there was really a dragon!  Here she is, relaxing on an art room table while her wings were undergoing repair. 

 I used Dan's 'cloth-mache' process to build her.  Because she's about 5' long, I had to work on her in my backyard over the summer, and it took me about 3 years to finish her (it was weather-dependent, and I'm easily distracted)!  Then she went to live in my art room, where my students loved her.  She is named Lucy (in the Sky) after the Beatles song, of course. For the complete story on Lucy and her construction and life, check out this old post, HERE.  In the pic below, she's under construction.

Nowadays, Lucy is, like me, retired.  She resides at our 'camp' in the Adirondacks.  Most of her time is spent snoozing on the bunk bed, but sometimes she gets out and suns herself on the rocks.  

I hope you'll come back on the first Tuesday of each month to see what the Art Ed Blogger Network has in store to read! (also in between, because I have lots of other posts planned, too!)

This post is a part of The Art Ed Blogger's Network: Monthly Tips and Inspiration from Art Teacher Blogs. On the first Tuesday each month, each of these art teacher blogs will post their best ideas on the same topic.

Participating Art Teacher Blogs:

• Art Class Curator
• Art Ed Guru
• Art is Basic
• Art Room Blog
• Artful Artsy Amy
• Capitol of Creativity
• Cassie Stephens
• Create Art with ME
• MiniMatisse
• Mr. Calvert's Art Room Happenings
• Mrs. T's Art Room
• Party in the Art Room
• shine brite zamorano
• Tales from the Traveling Art Teacher
• There's a Dragon in my Art Room

Highlights of my visit to the Art Institute of Chicago

Lorette with Cup of Coffee; Henri Matisse

It's always great to see works of art that you've never seen before, that really grab you, especially by favorite artists, like the one above.  I totally am blown away by the close-cropped composition, and can't think of another Matisse painting like it, including the very neutral color scheme.

While I didn't get to see everything I wanted during my recent visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, and the van Gogh exhibit was so crowded that I got claustrophobic and escaped without seeing most of it, I have some pieces from elsewhere in the museum that I want to share.  But first, let me share my mola dress, that I made! My camera was missing for a day, so I had to rely on what pics I could get others to take of me.

In the left-hand image, I just completed presenting a workshop on blogging with Laura Lohmann of the blog Painted Paper, and Cassie Stephens, who has a self-named blog.  On the right is my annual colorful hair pic with a gal from Massachusetts.  I think her lovely mermaid hair really outshined my blue tips and steak this year!  I got the mola through Crizmac, and bought assorted colors of double-knit fabrics (to match the mola) from Mood, the fabric store in NYC where they shop for fabric on Project Runway.  I'm pretty pleased with the way the dress turned out!

Now, back to my visit to the art museum...  I was sure this pic below was going to say it was by Andre Derain.  But I was wrong.  Nevertheless, I love, love the colors!

House at Chatou; Maurice de Vlaminck

 And I was fooled again by these two paintings. I was guessing maybe Kandinsky.  I don't think I realized that Braque ever painted with such lively colors!

Landscape at L'Estaque; Georges Braque

Antwerp; Georges Braque

 These below, however, WERE painted by Kandinsky, who has forever been another of my personal favorites. 

Landscape with Two Poplars; Vasily Kandinsky

Painting with Troika; Vasily Kandinsky

I was tickled to discover that this lovely painting with a complementary color scheme had been painted by a woman, and she was American! 

Landscape; Marguerite Thompson Zorach

And another Matisse I've never seen before.  This painting is so expressive; I am smitten. 

Woman before an Aquarium; Henri Matisse

And this has a Matisse-ness to it, but it is NOT a Matisse.

Summer; William Zorach

Here, I might have guessed Manet, and of course I was wrong again...  Instead, it's painted by another American woman!

Shoe Shop; Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones

Another that reminds me of Manet...

At Mouquins; William Glackens

But maybe my favorite pieces that I came across in the museum were both surprises by George Wesley Bellows.  These paintings are very different, color-wise, than the Bellows paintings I am familiar with.  They are both so rich, so vibrant! 

Love of Winter; George Wesley Bellows

When I got to the Bellows painting below, a young couple was raptly staring at it.  They turned to me and asked "Do you know where this is?"  And I was able to answer!  The Palisades are a mountain cliff area on the New Jersey side (the western shore) of the Hudson River, just north of New York City.  When we visit NYC, we usually travel there by Amtrak train, on a line which runs along the eastern (NY) shore of the river from Manhattan northward.  The Palisades are visible from the train, so this is a view I have seen many times.  The painting is lush.  

The Palisades; George Wesley Bellows

I had also never seen this painting below before.  Isn't it just spectacular?  Usually I expect to see Magritte paintings with a color scheme centered around blues, so this red-orange seems very unusual to me.  I wish my crummy museum photos did justice to the incredible richness of color in these paintings I am sharing with you.  I

The Banquet; Rene Magritte

This painting below was also alive with rich warm colors and movement.  I can hear the music playing!!

Nightlife; Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

And look at this fun Lichtenstein painting! 

Woman III; Roy Lichtenstein

I love this painting below because it just "feels" like the Maine coastline, which is probably what Marin was interpreting in this artwork. 

Movement: Boats and Objects, Blue Gray Sea; John Marin

I can't share van Gogh's Rooms with you, because, like I said, the exhibit was beyond crowded, actually shoulder-to-shoulder when I was there.  Being short, dealing with the crowd, and having a woman with a shrieking infant behind me were all too much, so instead I escaped and spent a lot of my museum time viewing Chagall's vibrant stained glass American Windows.  Here's a few pics.  The window panels represent 5 different topics: music, painting/art, theater, the American Bicentennial, and reading/literature.  I enjoyed reading about the process of their creation, as well as seeing the complete piece.   Here's a few views.

I hope you've enjoyed this little museum tour, without having to leave home! 

Wild beasts, wild patterns, wild colors!

Cheetah by Sylvia, grade 2

My DragonWing Arts students were introduced to Henri Matisse, and his use of both bright colors and repeating patterns in his paintings.  We talked about how he and his contemporaries were criticized for their wild use of color, and were nicknamed "fauves" which means "wild beasts".

Zebra by Mackenzie, grade 4

So, my students drew and painted wild beasts!  To be specific, they selected from the wild animals of Africa, and incorporated both bright colors and repeating patterns in their paintings.

To begin, students examined pictures of their selected animal, looked for the basic shapes in their bodies, and practiced drawing them in their sketchbooks.  Once they had practiced, the animals were drawn with yellow chalk on white sulphite paper that had been cut to 15"x 21", Chalk was used for three reasons: to encourage the kids to draw large, to make it easy to wipe off (erase) and adjust the lines, and to eliminate having pencil lines that would show through the paints.

The animals were painted with fluorescent tempera paints.  When dry, black Sharpie was used to outline the patterns on their bodies, and also any details of the painting.  The elephant below is not quite complete, as the artist was absent for one class.  The ear, eye, and mouth will be outlined, which will help define the animal.

Elephant by Joe, grade 3

Meanwhile, on a sheet of 18"x 24" white paper, a 1-1/2" border was marked off with pencil. The borders were left white, and inside the border, the rest of the paper was painted with black tempera. When the black paint was totally dry, white patterns were added by stamping various items, including the ends of cardboard rolls, dowels, and pencil erasers; also the edges of cardboard squares, and pipe cleaners shaped into zigzags. As you can tell, this was a fun activity!

The animals were cut out and glued onto the black and white paper.  The white border was decorated with animal print paper, and, in the case of the zebra, also turquoise metallic paper.  Finally, the projects were glued onto sheets of 20"x 26" fluorescent poster board!

Giraffe, by Forrest, grade 3

By the way, the animal print paper, the colored metallic paper, and the fluorescent poster board all came from Pacon.  I had developed a lesson for Pacon using their new plastic poster board, and to thank me, I was given the opportunity to select $100 value of any products in the Pacon catalog!  These papers were among the materials that I selected.  Thank you, Pacon!  A small business like DragonWing Arts can't always afford purchases of these niche products.  By the way, I wrote about the plastic poster board, here and here on the blog, and one of the lessons I developed using the poster board will be distributed at the Pacon booth in the vendor area at the upcoming NAEA convention in Chicago.

Coming soon, here on the blog, more wild and wacky fauve wild beasts, this time made from papier-mache!  Here's a little teaser for you!