The beginning of the 2010-2011 school year proved to be quite a fun and busy one as I began teaching weekly elementary art at Harvest Community School.
I wanted to open the year teaching my students about several well-known Impressionist artists. The first grade class learned about Paul Cezanne. Cezanne painted several still-life examples of fruits including peaches, pears, apples and grapes. I had them imitate his style and his work Three Pears (1878-1879) using a still-life of fresh pears from the grocery store.
http://www.oil-paintings-art.com/Arts/C/Cezanne/CE064.html
After discussing Paul Cezanne and Impressionism in general, I taught about still-life and what that means. I told the students the difference in drawing with our heads and drawing with our eyes. We discussed contour drawing. I demonstrated on the white board how to really look at the subject and draw what is seen instead of looking only at the paper and drawing what we think we see.
Although students usually want to start with pencil to erase all their mistakes, I had the kids begin with oil pastel very lightly. They were able to choose almost any color they liked instead of remaining with the realistic green pear color. They only catch was they had to choose a contrasting color to really make the pears "pop". Unlike Cezanne's work, our art piece has a horizon line. I also taught them what this meant and how the fruit should appear to be set on the table and not on the very edge--about to topple off!
After sketching out the still life, the students worked on filling in color in the manner of Cezanne, using a darker shade for shadow areas and lighter tints for where the light would naturally hit the fruit. They learned how to blend the pastel using their fingers.
I was really pleased with the results of our very first project of the year for first grade! I think they really captured the essence of the artist Paul Cezanne.
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