You're gonna love these Matisse inspired collages! We learned about geometric and organic shapes!

For this project, we checked out Henri Matisse's work. Matisse was a French artist who is most well-known for the paper cutouts (collages) he made. He used a mixture of both organic and geometric shapes to create his works. Late in life, he developed cancer. After a botched surgery, he was left wheelchair-bound and his vision was beginning to fail him. He oftentimes made art from the comfort of his bed, bringing the outside world into his room through his artwork.

We started off the project watching a couple videos about Mr. Matisse. Then we discussed the difference between organic and geometric shapes. This was the big focus of the project. I explained to them that organic shapes look like blobs of spilled milk and geometric shapes are shapes that usually have names (circles, squares, diamonds, etc). The first day of the project was spent only cutting out shapes. I stressed that their cutouts should be various sizes, colors, and a blend of geometric and organic shapes.

Most of the second class was spent cutting out shapes as well. I allowed them to start gluing shapes onto their black background with the last ten minutes of class left. I emphasized that they needed to lay out their shapes first though to get an idea of where they wanted their shapes at. Students were welcome to keep cutting if they felt they needed too, which many did!

On the final day of the project, the students finished cutting out any shapes that they needed and glued them onto their background. When they were finished, they took a quick quiz on Mr. Matisse.