Matisse-Inspired Art (sort of)

We read a great book about Matisse this week, and did an inspired craft.

Matisse the King of Color

This is beautifully illustrated, and reads more like a fictional picture book than a nonfiction book.  The Bibliophile enjoyed it.  I'm excited to see that there are other books in this series (Degas, Van Gogh, Leonardo, Picasso, and Monet).  At the conclusion of the book, Matisse creates a series of stained glass windows at the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary).

Our project is hardly reminiscent of Matisse, but the rough idea was that we would copy 1) the idea of stained glass, 2) the idea of symmetry (hardly unique to Matisse, but new to the Bibliophile), and 3) bright colors.  We didn't actually have any contact paper, but we picked up a roll of sticky frosted window covering that worked fine for our purposes (probably not as much streaming of light through the finished project).  I completely forgot to take photos during the crafting process, but I just laid out a sheet of it for him, sticky side up, alongside a pile of brightly colored tissue paper.

I showed him what symmetry meant, and I had lightly creased the center of the sticky paper, so there was a dividing line down the middle.  You may not be able to tell in the finished piece, but he did very well at laying down most of his papers symmetrically.  He's very proud of it, and periodically walks up to it and says, "you [I] made art like Matisse!"  Here is where he chose to hang it:

I'm considering trying out this excerpt from the book (I'm thinking chalk tied to a broom stick, with paper taped to the ceiling?) before we return it to the library:

Matisse loved children, too.  He tied chalk to a long stick so that he could draw his grandchildren on the ceiling.  'They keep me company when I can't sleep,' he said.

 I am linking this post up with Artists and Art, the Art Box, Red Ted Art, STart, Crafty Soiree, and Little Masterpieces.

Comment!  Have you done anything artsy lately?  Think I will ever get around to finding and buying contact paper? :)

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