Tuesday, September 23, 2014

One Day Elementary Art Lesson | First Grade Still Life Painting, Cezanne

I just had to share this tonight.  It couldn't wait.  First grade has been learning about still lifes as part of our curriculum this year, and today I completed my first round of Cezanne apple still lifes.


I was SO pleased with how these turned out!  It only took one class period, which is always nice, and the kids really enjoyed making them.  We reviewed what a still life is [because we just completed a Van Gogh sunflower still life], and looked at a few of Cezanne's apple paintings.  I will write out the steps below [although I feel that it's pretty self explanatory].
 Step 1: Draw three or four circles. [so easy]  I used black pastels, but black crayons would be alright.
Step 2: I told the kids to draw a "u" with a little line on it to create the stems.
Step 3: Draw the plate [or bowl] around the apples.  It doesn't need to be perfect!
Step 4: Design your table cloth.  This is where they can really have fun with it and make it their own.
Step 5:  I had the students paint only one side of each apple either red or green. [I used tempera cakes.]
Step 6: Add yellow to all of the apples and go back and add more red or green [or orange].  Mixing colors on the paper is fine!
Step 7: Finish the rest of the painting.  I encouraged them to paint the plate only 1 color so that the apples stood out more. But they could paint the table cloth any way they wanted.
Step 8:  This is the hardest part, but I think it makes a huge difference.  [Carefully] Go back over your black pastel marks.  They will have to be careful because the paper will probably still be wet in places.  We JUST painted and used pastels on top for our last project, so my kids were really good about taking their time with the pastels.
That's it!  I am really trying to get my kids to remember that a still life is THINGS, portraits are PEOPLE, and sea/city/landscapes are PLACES.  We will be moving right along to those other subjects soon.  Let me know if you'd like to see more step-by-step examples!


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great lesson. Love the simplicity!

Ashley said...

Thank you Christianne!

Patty Palmer said...

Super cute. Love the colors!

Ashley said...

Thank you so much Patty! I love everything you do. I took your e-course a couple of summers ago and it was amazing! :)

Unknown said...

I really appreciate this post. This is a great lesson for me to do with my daughter. Thanks much!

Veronika said...

Looking forward to trying this project with my 1st and 2nd graders! Thanks for the idea!

Anonymous said...

Great lesson, transferring to an elementary school this week great start to see what they can do.

Anonymous said...

love love love!! so simple so beautiful. and love step by step examples!!

Snippety Gibbet said...

I hope you don’t mind. I wrote a post about this lesson at my blog, Art Sub Lessons, and linked back here. It is a wonderful lesson that you have explained so well, I think a sub could teach it. https://artsublessons.blogspot.com/2018/03/art-sub-lesson-easy-cezanne-still-life.html

Unknown said...

I’d love to see what you did with the sunflowers.

Unknown said...

I am new to teaching art and I appreciate what you have to share. So very helpful and inspiring for me to get started....Thank you!!!

Unknown said...

Yes, I would love to see more step by step lessons. Thank you, I loved it, I will try it with my students today!

Anonymous said...

thank you , certainly will try with my grandson !

Andi said...

How large is the paper? Is it watercolor paper or something else?