SaharaTulip: Introducing Paul Cezanne to 2nd Graders

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Introducing Paul Cezanne to 2nd Graders

I love being an Art Docent at my daugther's school. This fun program provides a sequential interactive education in art history and artistic skills and is a great way for me to volunteer my art skills to others.

I have provided lessons before on my blog and wanted to continue them for this year.

I had forgotten my phone (aka camera) at the last two art classes, but I finally remembered it yesterday for our lesson on Paul Cezanne.

Introducing Paul Cezanne to 2nd Graders

I started the lesson by showing them a photo of a dashing young Paul.

The French painter Paul Cezanne

I told them he wasn't very good at portrait painting, which was the "in" thing to do at this time. He was one of the first artists to take paint and canvas outside to paint the great outdoors. He hated the hours and days and months of sittings it took to draw a portrait.

He'd had his full of people, because they didn't still like an apple. Knowing his weakness and turning on his strength turned him into a master of fruit painting. He loved to look at the shapes and color of fruit, filling canvases with spheres and cones and cylinders.

I brought in three objects I asked them to draw. An avocado, apple, and Asian pear.

I showed about how the avocado was actually a triangle, while the apple was a circle, and the Asian pear was more of a square. I asked them to study the shapes and see if they can draw them on their 9x12 construction paper.

Each student was given a box of oil pastels. Here's the catch: they were only allowed to use two colors! I pointed out how Cezanne loved to use shading and blending in his work and we were going to use our fingers to get that same effect.

As always, I am truly impressed with the masterpieces they created. Here are a few I was able to photograph before they went up on the wall.