Mixed Media Collages Inspired by Matisse's Goldfish

Here are some things we noticed about this painting:
Bright colors                               Lots of circles and curved lines
Large brushstrokes                      Different types of plants and flowers
Patterns                                        Side of a chair or a railing
Complementary/contrasting colors  Plants make patterns
Reflection of goldfish in water     Different types of brush strokes
Very light and very dark colors    Goldfish catch your eye
Not trying to be super realistic     Makes me feel calm


Here's some fascinating info about Matisse and his goldfish paintings!

First we mixed different shades of colors using liquid watercolor paints and painted the paper that we will use for our collages.  We added salt while the watercolors were wet to observe amazing patterns as the paint dries. 

#liquidwatercolor #paintedpaper for our #Matisse #collages by #faystonschool #thirdandfourthgrade

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Matisse Goldfish Collage by Grades Three and Four

Third and fourth graders looked at Henri Matisse's Goldfish painting as inspiration for their Original Works Fundraiser collages.  We started by painting a variety of colored paper using different watercolor techniques.  Then we used crayons to create a patterned background using watercolor resist.  We looked at several examples of Matisse's paintings and collages for inspiration for the patterns and colors of the background and shapes to include in our collages.  

Painted paper using liquid watercolor paint, salt, plastic wrap, bubble wrap and other techniques:

Collages inspired by Matisse's Goldfish:

Matisse's Shapes by grades 1&2

First and second graders looked at examples of Henri Matisse's cut paper collages. We compared the organic shapes seen in these collages to the geometric shapes in Paul Klee's Castle and Sun painting. Artists used their scissors to draw organic shapes on colored paper, then they glued the shaped onto string to create hanging shape mobiles.

We also explored the iPad app ArtDoodles, which has a Henri Matisse-inspired collage-maker. Check out some of the collages students made using this fun app!