Day 20!

Most things, especially things in nature, have a color that people automatically assign to them.  The sky and the ocean are usually depicted as being blue, grass is generally green as are most trees.  People have varied skin tones but they usually fall into a palette that we are familiar with.  Dogs and cats usually are black or white, brown or 'ginger', sometimes mixtures of all of those colors, sometimes in various shades.

Back in the early 20th century there was a group of artists called 'The Fauves', meaning 'Wild Beasts' in French.  The Fauves were interested in using color as personal expression rather than the realistic, representational way that it had been used in the past.  The Fauves valued individual expression and the personal relationship between artist and subject.  You can read more about the Fauve movement here, here and here.

Here's a list of a few of the most famous Fauve artists that you can read about:
Henri Matisse
Andre Derain
George Braque
Raoul Dufy

George Rodrigue was an American painter most famous for his Blue Dog series.  While not technically a Fauve, he employed arbitrary color in his work regularly.  You can read more about George's work here and here.

Today's challenge is for you to think like a Wild Beast.  Draw a picture, or if you have a coloring book you can use a picture in the book, just make sure that if you do use a coloring book picture, it is a picture of something recognizable, not just designs or patterns.  Then, throw all your ideas of what color things should be out the window and color in your picture using arbitrary colors.  Use colors that you want the things in the picture to be, not the colors that they are usually assigned. Have fun, be creative and as always, take pictures and share them with the class in Google Classrooms!

The Fauves and Blue Bulldogs

Well, it’s been a while since I have posted.  I didn’t realize that it had been since the beginning of the school year since I shared anything with you and here it is almost Thanksgiving.  Do you ever do things like compose things in your head and think that you might have sent it (as in a text or email) or posted it (as in this here blog)?  I think that is what may have happened. I’ve been taking pictures of students working and their completed projects and I could have sworn that I posted about some of the projects that we have done but...I guess I’ll just chalk that up to being a tired teacher.

For our most recent project we studied The Fauves and their use of arbitrary colors in their artwork.  We looked at the work of Andre’ Derain and Henri Matisse, among others, and tried to understand the way that they felt about color.  While we were planning our paintings, we tried to understand what they meant when they said “From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.” (Matisse) and "We were always intoxicated with colour, with words that speak of colour, and with the sun that makes colours live." (Derain)

We also took some time and looked at the work of American painter George Rodrigue and his ‘Blue Dogs’.  We learned that while Rodrigue wasn’t technically a fauvist painter, his work has many similar elements.  I always like to start off my projects with a little bit of art history. I feel like we can learn so much from looking at the work of artists, both contemporary and in the past.  I also try to take the time to explain to my students the difference between being inspired by something and plagiarism. I think that in exploring different styles of art, students have the opportunity to see where their strengths lie and perhaps learn something that they didn’t know before.

I’ve done the ‘How to Draw a Bulldog’ step by step lesson before.   The last time, if I recall correctly, we drew them and colored them in to look like the work of Romero Britto.  It’s always a fun lesson and the kids LOVE to draw along with me, step by step and realize what they can do when  they listen and learn how to break things down into smaller lines and shapes. This time, we worked really large and I think that their bulldogs turned out wonderfully.

Here’s a few for your enjoyment.