Patterned Still-Life Paintings.

Students at our school are exposed to a lot of drawing instruction. By the time they reach the fifth grade, they have been well prepared for a lesson that combines drawing skills with the use of tempera paint to mix color values. This lesson also brought our attention to various ways that artists employ pattern in their paintings.

We referred to three paintings by the French artist Henri Matisse during the four weeks that we spent on this lesson. In our first 55-minute session, we examined the shapes that repeat in Matisse's Reader at Pedestal Table in Green Blouse, Red Striped Dress (1921).

While it is a recognizable interior with a figure, the painting operates on a two-dimensional level via patterns. We scanned the painting to find that round shapes, circles and ovals, appeared all over the surface of the painting; on the wall pattern, in the flowers, on the vase and the other objects on the table, on the table itself, the floor, etc. This painting is amazing for its repetition of round shapes; it makes the point crystal clear to the kids.

With that point established, we turned our attention to the objects in a still-life setup. I told the class that one of the reasons why those particular objects had been chosen was because they formed a pattern of round shapes in our still life. After we identified the objects, a drawing demonstration ensued.

Students were directed to observe shapes, their sizes relative to each other and their placement. To correctly place the objects in our drawing, we looked at the negative shapes between them. For years now, my students have been trained to identify the shapes of objects. The objective of this is that once they can articulate what they are seeing, they will understand it well enough to draw it. Students were reminded to draw life-size so that their compositions would utilize the 12" x 18" paper format.

Once the drawings were established, we looked at another painting by Matisse, Interior, Flowers and Parrot (1924). We used this painting to examine the use of repeated colors. We observed reds repeated and distributed all over the surface of the painting, as well as yellows and blues. We realized that, as colorful as that painting seemed, it was composed of variations of the primary color triad.

Having said this, we could then see that our still life consisted of blues, yellow-browns and grays. To this we added a review of prior knowledge of values, and set about mixing light, mid tone, and dark values of the blue objects. By having the students concentrate on the blues (the largest color group in the still life), I was able to direct their attention to comparing the values of those objects.

We subsequently learned that the artists have a purpose in mind when they choose their still-life objects, and that one of our objectives was to heighten our visual awareness of color values. For example, the tablecloth was pale, the eggplant was a dark blue-violet, and the bowl was a mid-tone shade of blue. Mixing color values was quite a job for the kids, and I have learned that it is made easier by having similar colors to compare the values to.

When the painting of their still-life objects approached completion, it was time to discuss how we would handle the background wall plane. We looked at another painting by Matisse, The Purple Robe (1937). In this interior with a figure, everything is decorated with linear patterns of stripes and swirls. We scanned the painting to find that each of the patterns was repeated somewhere in the foreground or background.

Keeping with the idea of repetition, we used colors in the background of our paintings that had appeared somewhere in the still-life objects. We applied a solid area of color first, and then we invented decorative patterns over the dry paint. Some of us were mindful to make patterns that had shapes like those of the still-life objects, going the full-nine-yards to create paintings that are unified by the repeated use of color and shape.

• 12"x 18" manila paper

• Drawing pencils

• Liquid tempera paint (red, yellow, blue, white and black)

• Paintbrushes

• Still-life objects (drum, tambourine, striped or other patterned cloth, round produce such as eggplant and onions)

Students will...

• observe and then draw the shapes of still-life objects, their sizes and placement (via negative shapes) relative to the other objects in the still life.

• learn about the role of pattern in still-life paintings by Henri Matisse.

• observe the pattern formed by the repeated circular shapes of the objects in the still life.

• mix colors of paint to match the objects in the still life, observing and mixing color values, and understanding the repetition of colors in the still life that form a pattern.