Fauve Artists in the Kindergarten

As we wind down this school year I am thinking about a bulletin board for the hallway, as our school is used for Summer School and I'd like the walkways to be inviting. A couple of weeks ago kindergarteners painted some patterned balloons (here). I decided to have them also paint some wild portraits inspired by Derain and Matisse (leading Fauvists) and put them together with the balloons.

This bulletin board shows a small sampling of the kids' work. My plan for "back-to-school" in the Fall is to fill the Auditorium boards with the rest of their Fauve artwork. That should be pretty welcoming as we start school again in August!!

For this lesson, I started by sharing some portraits by Derain and Matisse and the kids compared them to portraits done in the 1700s. Fauve means "wild beast" and that captured everyone's attention right away!!

Students drew their portrait, with me giving guidance, using Stayonal crayons, which they have used before.

Then I pretty much turned them loose with cake tempera. The only technical part of the lesson was to compare the flat brushes they were using to the watercolor brushes they used in prior weeks and talk about the brush's care.

This is definitely one of those "no-fail" experiences!!