Studio Visit Project: Matisse "Cut Outs"

These are paintings made of cut paper. The artist is Henri Matisse, a french painter. He loved bright colors. One day, Matisse painted some very large sheets of paper with bright colors. He cut out all kinds of shapes, flowers, leaves. birds, fish. He was delighted with the way he felt, it was like "painting in the air." He moved the shapes around on paper until he was happy with his composition, and then he pasted them down. He had never created a painting with cut papers before. He called them "collages." (Did you know the french word for paste is colle? Coll..age. Get it?) This is Matisse at work on his "cut outs."

Here is a project inspired by Matisse's Cut Outs. It's called "Gardens." You can create colorful collages just like Matisse did. You'll need some beautiful, bright papers. You can draw some large flowers, leaves, birds and fish, and then cut them out. Paste them on colored papers and create exciting collages.

You'll need some large, bright construction paper

2 scissors

Elmers School Glue

Draw some flower and leaf, shapes. Let an adult help you cut them out. Arrange them on a large paper. When you like the composition, paste the shapes down. When your collage is finished,

mount it on the wall.

Draw some bird and fish shapes. Let an adult help you cut them out. Arrange them on a large paper. When you like the composition, paste them down. When the collage is finished,

mount it on the wall.

Draw some people shapes. Let an adult help you cut them out. Arrange them on a large paper. When you like the composition, paste them down. When the collage is finished,

mount it on the wall.

Do another. And another. Mount them on the wall. Stand back and admire your "Garden."