Henri Matisse is a fabulous artist to study with children. He worked in a variety of mediums from painting to printing to sculpture and even cut paper collage. And cut paper collage was just the perfect medium for us to explore his work with flowers!
Children of all ages can create cut paper collage. For younger ones or with multiple ages, you may wish to pre-cut your paper pieces. Older children can definitely cut their own and with these abstract shapes, there really is no going wrong.
I set our table with a print of the original work, glue with a couple of brushes and a variety of shapes in a rainbow of colors to glue onto the large white construction paper. S, ever the minimalist, glued on four flowers because "I'm 4!" Y, ever the opposite in style, glued on as many as he could!
You could keep your set up as simple as this one or include markers for added detail. I love using a variety of sizes of paper for our artist studies. This was a larger scale project and you could go even larger than this and make it a collaborative work if you wish.
With larger scale works, table top space can be more limiting. This size did work at our space, but you might consider working at a larger horizontal space, on the floor or even vertically on a wall. You could definitely bring this outdoors as well, though you'd want to make sure it's not too windy or that you otherwise secure your smaller pieces either by storing them in a bag or a deep enough tray or basket that they won't blow away!
I love the primary and secondary colors in this work! It is a bright and cheerful addition to our growing family gallery. While many great works of art inspired by nature depict it in ways that are more exact and anatomically accurate, it is so important and beneficial to also expose young children to modern and abstract artwork. Modern artists portray ways in which the imagination leads a person to paint, sculpt or otherwise recreate the feeling he or she has upon seeing something in nature. For younger artists, this gives a great deal of room for expression through art that need not be "perfect" or "exact." Children who are more prone to perfectionism in their work will get great joy and build confidence when exploring within this framework.
I would also note here that even with children more prone to "minimalism" like my older one, it can be helpful to resist the urge to push them to add more. Yes, sometimes a child leaving a project is due to lack of interest or a desire to move to another activity. I try to leave our materials out and available at least for the duration of our morning for this reason. However, many times a child who "only glues four pieces onto his collage because he is 4" is genuinely intentional in doing so--just as intentional as the one who glues a bazillion on!
We will return with a great activity to explore artist Pablo Picasso and his classic painting that depicts a simple and colorful bouquet of flowers. Until then....happy playing!
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