1st-Apple Baskets

1st Grade: Apple Baskets

1st Graders explored some of Paul Cezanne's fruit still life paintings. We talked about what a still life is. We identified some delicious looking fruits in Cezanne's work. We also discussed why Cezanne painted so many fruit still life paintings. Students came to the conclusion that Cezanne loved fruit! He also used overlapping in his art. 

Last year, I did a similar project with 1st grade. The main difference was in the use of spreading the oil pastel with baby oil and cu-tips last year. However, we did not use oil this year. The art room smelled much like a baby nursery last year..and let's face it oil is just plain messy. So we did the cleaner version this year! I think the results are great. 

To begin, students used texture plates and crayons to create a textural effect on a white card stock paper. Next students created a table cloth with a seperate piece of white card. Students used sharpies, then colored in with oil pastels. We talked about some basic patterns for this. Students glued both papers down to a larger 12" x 18" piece of construction paper. Next, students created a basket. We did our woven pattern "number eleven, equals sign". Students folded back the top 1/2 inch. The baskets were glued to the background (no glue on the top 1/2 inch). Then, colored apples were made. Students drew 9 apples on pre-cut squares-3 green, 3 red, 3 yellow. Students cut these out and glued into the basket. We discussed overlapping and not having "floating apples" in our pictures. Though, students could have an apple "falling out of the basket" if they wished. Students could also glue apples on the table. This created some variety. 

Great job 1st Grade!