For the first major project our first graders created, we recreated Henri Matisse's Apples painting. Students used oil pastels to color in their own versions of the work, which mimic some of the qualities of real oil paints! In first grade, the students are focusing on lines and how artists use them to break up space in an art work. Matisse does a great job of contrasting the natural shapes of the apples and the plate against the mechanical lines of the pedestal and the design in the background.
Here is an example of the original artwork.
