Paul Cezanne

Here is the last Artist we will talk about this school year (2018-2019)! Thank you for the hard work from teachers and from the Volunteers! Children had such a wonderful year and we thank our Art Literacy directors! 

Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program

Paul Cezanne Bio Presentation

(Note:  as exhibits, use the double page of Cezanne’s work on the docucam, and show his self portrait.)

Paul Cezanne (pronounced say-ZON)  was a French painter who lived from 1839 to 1906.  He is well known for being an artist whose work bridges the gap between the style of art called “Impressionist” with a  more modern art style called “Cubism”. 

Impressionists painted scenes from life, trying to show the light in bold brushstrokes of vivid colors.  Cubists tried to paint an object as if you were seeing all sides of it at once, the pieces broken up and stuck together.

Look at these landscape paintings by Cezanne.  They show us a number of important things about his work:

·       He painted from life.  That means he sat outside and painted the landscape that he saw.

·       He took what he saw and tried to make it into a series of shapes.  He looked at the landscape and saw cylinders and spheres, cones and cubes.

·       He didn’t blend his colors together very much, but used bold strokes of color next to each other instead.  You can clearly see his brushstrokes.

·       He often used black to outline certain things in his pictures to make them stand out from other things.

Who plays Minecraft?  Everything in the Minecraft world is broken up into pixels, little blocks of color.  Can you see how Cezanne’s paintings are a bit like that?

Self Portrait~Cezanne

Landscape Paintings by Paul Cezanne

(for Docucam)

 Mont Saint-Victoire seen from Bibemus Quarry

 L’Estaque

 The Bay of Marseilles, view from L’Estaque   

 Jas de Bouffan

 Mont Sainte-Victoire   

 The house with the cracked walls

 Maison Maria on the way to the Chateau Noir

Mont Sainte-Victoire

Templeton Elementary School Art Literacy Program

Cezanne Oil Pastel Landscape Drawing

Getting ready

Presenters, first thing, please sign onto the Art Lit cart sign-out sheet on the wall.  That way we know where the art carts are at any time.  Next, please check the Art Lit cart for the supplies you will need.  The presentation folders and the tools should all be kept on the carts.  You will need to take a stack of white paper from the counter.  These are the supplies you will need:

Presentation folder

Desk protector sheets (30)

White paper (30 sheets)

Bag of pencils (30 or so)

6 stacked plastic boxes of pastels

Baby wipes

Landscape photos in plastic sleeves (40)

In the classroom, set up the kids’ places for them.  Each student starts out with a desk cover sheet, a sheet of white paper, and a pencil.  Each table group gets one large plastic box of pastels to share.   (I put them in the large bins so it will be easier to find the colors kids want.)   It’s possible someone may need to switch seats to be close to pastels.  Distribute the landscape photos however works for you.  There are more than enough for the class, and they are double-sided, so everyone should be able to find a picture they can enjoy drawing. 

The Project

(Things you might want to say to the kids are in purple.)  Try to think of questions to ask the kids as you go along.   Present the artist to the kids and show his work.  Then show them the samples of our project.  Keep the Cezanne landscape painting examples up on the docucam during the project so the kids will be reminded of his style and technique. 

Have the kids start by writing their names AND their teacher’s name in pencil on the back of their paper.  Please tell the kids not to share pastels from one table to another.  Each container has a certain selection of colors, and if they are moved around, the kids in the next class will not have the colors they need.

Introduction / Technique

Today we are going to do oil pastel drawings landscapes in the style of Paul Cezanne.  Choose a landscape photo you would like to draw.  Please don’t take the photos out of the plastic – we want them to stay clean.

 

Think about your picture before you start using the pastels.  Think about what colors you want to use.  It might be easiest to lightly sketch the picture in with pencil before you start drawing  with pastel.  You don’t have to use the colors that are in the picture you are working from, and you don’t have to fill it all in unless you want to.  It’s important to remember, when you draw with oil pastel, you can’t go back over it with another color very easily.  You may be able to make it darker, but once you put in a dark color, you can’t make it light again.  SO, think about where you want to keep the drawing white or light colored, and make sure you don’t put in too much color in those places. 

If you want to blend your oil pastel lines, you can rub them with a finger.  If you want to mix colors, you can do that by drawing lightly with one color, then going over it lightly with another color.  

Think about the way Cezanne made his pictures.  When he painted a rock, it would be made up of little chunks of different shades of brown and gray.  He didn’t blend colors together very much, but put strokes of them side by side.  And he used black outlines to make elements in his picture stand out.

Afterwards

Please try to make sure the pastels go back into the same containers, and stack them with the one lid on top.  Please count the pictures in plastic sleeves and the pencils before you leave the room, and ask kids to look for missing items.   After kids clean up the supplies, they will probably need to wash hands.   Use baby wipes as a last resort, but try to send them to the classroom sinks or bathrooms to wash hands.  PLEASE SAVE ALL UNUSED PAPERS FOR RE-USE.  Put them into the box in the library.  Take all projects back to the Art Lit area and put them into a folder with your teacher’s name on it.  Folders will be on the counter. 

Thank you!                                                                                                 May 2019