Grade: Kindergarten Matisse’s Painting with Scissors

Grade: Kindergarten – Matisse’s Painting with Scissors

PRINT: Beast of the Sea

ARTIST: Henri Matisse (on ree ma teess) 1869 – 1954

“Creativity takes courage.”

Henri Matisse is considered to be the 20th century’s most important French
painter. He was born in a tiny, tumbledown weaver’s cottage in a textile
town. The house had two rooms, a beaten earth floor and a leaky roof. His
ancestors had lived in the area for centuries. His mother gave him his first art
supplies while he was recovering from an illness and he knew immediately
that he wanted to be an artist. Matisse later said: “My mother loved
everything I did.” His mother was the first to advise her son not to adhere to
the “rules” of art, but rather listen to his own emotions.

Matisse’s career can be divided into several art periods that changed
stylistically, but his underlying aim always remained the same: to discover
“the essential character of things” and to produce an art” of balance, purity,
and serenity,” as he himself put it. He communicated joy with expressive
colors and bold patterns. He made color a crucial element of his work. He
experimented with drawing throughout his lifetime, often helping him to
work out compositional and stylistic problems or new ideas. Matisse drew
and painted from nature things he saw rather than things he imagined as his
friend Picasso did. Matisse’s subjects were mostly women and still lives,
placed in fully realized interiors.

In his later years, he became sick and was confined to his bed and
wheelchair. Not one to sit idle, Matisse put down his paintbrush and took up
scissors instead. He began to create works of art with cutouts. Cutouts are a
kind of sculpture made out of paper, carved by scissors instead of a chisel,
unlike a collage that combines real and depicted objects in one composition.
Matisse would cut out an image with one hand cutting and the other moving
the paper into position. Sometimes these scissor-carved shapes would tell a
story other times they were simple abstract patterns.

ART ELEMENT: Pattern and shape

MATERIALS: Fadeless construction paper (located in the top drawer of the
cabinet in the front of the room on the right)

White paper for a background (12 x 18 or bigger)
Pencils
Glue sticks
Scissors

PROJECT INTRODUCTION: Cut fadeless paper into smaller more
manageable squares and rectangles for the students to cut up their shapes.
Precut the background rectangles in various colors for them to use.

On day of art lesson, talk about pattern and shape. A pattern is a motif that
repeats itself. Have students pick out patterns they see in the room as well as
different shapes. Show them how they can “paint with their scissors” like
Matisse did to create their own shapes by cutting with scissors. Explain how
they can use the actual shape they created as well as the paper that was left
over when they cut out the shape. Show an example of this by taking a piece
of paper and folding it in half. Now cut out a simple shape. Unfold the paper
and you can see where the shape had been. Students can share shapes and
leftover space shapes.

PROCESS:
1. Students will create their own paper cut outs like Matisse. Encourage
large shapes to be cut such as long squiggles, multi angle shapes, etc. Draw
the shapes on the paper, then cut with scissors or they can cut shapes out
directly without drawing them. Remind them that the shapes need to be bold
and large enough.
2. Cut out 6-8 shapes.
3. Have students pick out their background papers, these should be
contrasting colors of their shapes.
4. Arrange the shapes and background papers onto the larger white paper.
The shapes may overlap.
5. Glue everything in place.
6. After students leave, adult volunteers may need to touch up the projects
with more glue. There is YES paste in the first cabinet, which is stronger
than glue sticks. You can spread it with the wooden popsicle sticks.

FURTHER REFERENCE:
www.henri-matisse.net
www.musee-matisse-nice.org

Stacy Riley 2011-2012

Henri Matisse Through the years

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Matisse in his studio in front of his easel Matisse in bed working on his cutouts,

Autumn of 1911 Venice, 1948

Matisse at work at his paper cutouts in his studio at Nice, 1952