Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse, born in 1869, began his working life doing administrative tasks for a court. As a gift, his mother gave him his first art supplies and he fell in love with painting.

He studied art in Paris where he painted mostly landscapes and still lifes. He was successful at this and the state even bought five of his paintings. In 1898, he discovered impressionism. A friend and fellow painter, John Peter Russell introduced him to the work of the impressionists including van Gogh who was still unknown and Gauguin. Matisse’s style changed completely following this discovery and color took center-stage in his paintings.

This love of color evolved into Fauvism, in which natural scenes are portrayed in unnatural, usually extremely bright, colors.

By the end of his life Matisse was thoroughly interested in patterns and from this interest came his collages. Made from boldly hand-painted paper cut into shapes, Matisse’s collages were usually large works of simplicity. He create a book, Jazz, illustrated with these collages.

Shown below are two paintings by Matisse, Two Figures Reclining in a Landscape and The Red Madrass Headress. Notice the difference in style and color use.

EDITED TO ADD: Create Your Own Matisse Collage

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NaNoWriMo Word Count:

41902 / 50000 words. 84% done!
Yes: still behind but...
I FINISHED MY NOVEL!!!!!!

Collages

You have probably made a collage before by cutting out magazine pictures and gluing them to another sheet of paper to create a new picture or pattern. Many artists have also used this technique in their paintings. These artists include Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, who I’ll post articles and projects on during the next two weeks.

Picasso was the first to use collage in painting. In 1912 he glued a piece of cloth with a chair caning pattern, the woven part of the seat, to his painting Still Life with Chair Caning (shown below). This allowed him to use 3D to portray the things he saw.

For Matisse, collages were a way he could continue to create art when he fell sick late in his life. He hand-painted pieces of white paper with bold, solid colors and arranged them into pictures. The collages, such as Iccarus shown below, were then used in his book, Jazz.

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Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

40552 / 50000 words. 81% done!
It’s the final countdown! Just 5 more days.

NaNovel Excerpt

As requested, here is an excerpt from my NaNovel. It comes from chapter 3. You'll notice that it does relate to art so it's not even off-topic for this blog! I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave comments.
_________

“Did you hear that?” Emily asked. They all listened. “Someone’s coming.”

“In here,” Andy whispered, throwing open the door next to the nightstand. Emily scurried through the door, into a second bedroom that was filled with paintings of sunflowers. Demitri climbed off the bed and smoothed the wrinkles from the bedspread before crossing the room in four large strides. They left the door open a crack and spied quietly.

When the entrance clicked open and a bearded, red-haired man stepped into the bedroom, Demitri drew in an excited breath. Van Gogh unhooked the leather belts that he had used to strap his easel and canvas to his back. He set the easel in the corner opposite the door and held the canvas up to consider the composition. Emily widened the slit between the door and the wall so she could better see. There was a weepy-looking tree in the center of a grassy median. A woman strolled the cobblestone walkways as a man looked on from the rail at the distant entrance to the park.

Van Gogh leaned the painting against the wall to finish drying. He lifted another, completed painting from the floor, tested with his finger that the paint was dry, and proceeded toward Emily, Andy, and Demitri’s hiding place. They stood quickly and backed away from the door as van Gogh swung it open.

Van Gogh stopped, braced himself against the door jamb. He stared at the intruders and they stared at him. Emily thought her heart would explode if it beat any faster. Finally Andy spoke.

“Hi, Vincent,” he said. “We’ve come from Paris, your brother sent us.” Andy approached the petrified artist. “I’m Andy.”

“Yeah, um...” Emily walked toward the doorway. “Did he not tell you we were coming?” She concentrated on not turning fire-engine red but she couldn’t stop her cheeks from alighting. How could Andy stay so calm?

Vincent eyed them suspiciously, relaxing his impossibly tense muscles enough to set the painting against the wall. “Theo sent you?”

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Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

35138 / 50000 words. 70% done!

I'm not finished writing for the night
but it's after midnight so it'll count
for tomorrow. 15000 word to go!

Jen Stark's Paper Sculpture

Happy Thanksgiving! And since today, I’m assuming, won’t be a big crafting day (at least here in the U.S.), I thought I’d post a link to a really cool website I found recently. The artist is Jen Stark and I love her paper sculpture. Click here to flip through her gallery. What I find so stunning about this art is that it is quite simple but looks extremely complex.

Also, you could create your own colorful, 3D paper art (like this piece) with just a pair of scissors, some glue, and craft paper. Cut your top sheet of paper into a strange shape. Cut the next sheet into a similar shape that is slightly larger. Continue with as many sheets as you’d like to use—five, ten, twenty-five.

If you want a shape to stick out of the center, you’ll have to do some measuring, but the basic idea is that the shape you cut in the top sheet should be the largest and each shape below should get progressively smaller. Make sure to leave one side of the shape attached or you won’t be able to fold it up. A craft knife would make this step easier but you’ll need an adult to help you.

When you’ve finished all the cutting, line up the papers so they look the way you want, then use a glue stick to attach the sheets to each other.

Voila!

If you try this project, leave me a comment about your experience or send me an email with a photo of your creation and I’ll post it here.

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NaNoWriMo Word Count:
Check yesterday’s meter; I didn’t write a single word today. I have extremely high hopes for the long weekend, though.

Tune in tomorrow for an excerpt!

Create Your Own Thanksgiving Placemat

Today’s Thanksgiving table usually holds a turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, maybe some corn on the cob, a pumpkin pie, but most of these things were not present at the first thanksgiving. Potatoes were not common at the time, and by November corn had been removed from the cob and dried to last through the winter. Turkey only existed in the wild and had to be hunted so they pilgrims may have had turkey but more likely they ate seafood. Pumpkin pie didn’t exist yet, though they may have enjoyed pumpkin stew, and the pilgrims didn’t have sugar so cranberry sauce was out of the question. They probably at fruits such as grapes and berries, and nuts.

Decorating placemats for thanksgiving is a great way to start a conversation about what the pilgrims ate at the first thanksgiving and how that compares to what your family enjoys. And you can wow everyone with your knowledge of the pilgrims’ menu. It’s also your chance to help create a festive dinner table.

Supplies Needed:

Vinyl Placemat
Fabric Paint
Styrofoam plates
Foods for stamping (corn on the cob, potato, nuts)

Lay out newspaper to protect your work space. Clean your placemat. Squeeze a bit of paint onto each Styrofoam plate, one color on each plate.

Decide what you’d like to use for stamps. I recommend rolling corn on the cob in the paint and then across the place mat. It leaves an interesting pattern. Potatoes are good for stamping, too, because you can cut any shape out of them that you want. (Have an adult help you with this step.) You could use potatoes to stamp turkeys or cornucopias onto the placemat. Use anything you can think of, but be sure you have permission to use the supplies.

When your placemat is perfect, let it dry. If you do this today, it will be ready to decorate your Thanksgiving table tomorrow.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

33415 / 50000 words. 67% done!