1st Grade: Matisse Fish Bowls
1st Graders explored some of the works by Henri Matisse. His work,Goldfish, which he painted in 1912 is particularly wonderful in the colors it used. It had a lot of contrast and had an extraordinary use of complementary colors. The bright oranges contrasted with the cool greens was a very effective way to catch the viewer's eye. This is great art for my 1st grade students to study, as almost all students had some prior knowledge about goldfish or pet fish in general. They were quite excited to know a famous artist also had pet fish! The original Goldfish painting was surrounded by plants, greenery and even some flowers. My original plan was for students to add some giant green leaves. However, after the students had worked on the bowl, fish, table and interior walls, I think we were all a bit ready for the art to be done! I think adding any extra leaves would of been to much, as these are already full of patterns and colors.
I did find this wonderful project at Artsonia. Here is the original inspiration for our art:
I decided to do with 1st, Artsonia's art is 2nd grade. I think this art would work well with any elementary grade level.
Students traced an oval (which was the top of the fish bowl) to begin. This greatly helped with placement and sizing. I highly recommend this!! After I taught the first class, I quickly realized to make oval templates for tracing.
Students then drew a fish bowl (cylinder like the original painting OR more circular). We did a step by step for this. Students added 3-5 fish (of course, SOME students drew more). I did some basic goldfish shapes, and the students got the idea. Students could add additional elements for their fish bowl (castles, pebbles, bubbles, etc). Students added a table (more step by step instruction). I gave examples of a variety of table legs. We also drew the lines dividing up the 2 walls and the floor. The floor line was trickiest, as it needed to be above the bottom of the chair legs. Most students got the concept, however. Students liked the fact that they were drawing the bowl, table and room in "3-d". Most 3-D drawing is saved for higher grades, but this concept was simple enough that 1st grade could manage.
After the whole thing was drawn out, students traced the bowl in black pastel. The fish were colored with crayons. (NOT oil pastels, as then the fish details completely disappear). The table was colored with oil pastel. The water in the bowl was liquid turquise blue watercolor paint, as was the wallpaper on the walls. The floor was also watercolor paint. The walls were pastel resist.
I love how these came out! Great job 1st grade!
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