A little history on Paul Cézanne…

Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839 in Provence, France. When Cézanne first began painting, his artwork was noticeably dark and serious. After a friend encouraged him to paint outside, he began to paint with short brush strokes and brighter colors.

Cézanne is known for his still life paintings–mostly of household objects arranged with various fruits. Cézanne would spend hours arranging the fruit and his moving his easel around to get just the right perspective. He was intensely interested in painting shapes: cylinders, spheres, cones and cubes.

Art teachers love Cézanne!

Many art teachers look to Cézanne to introduce the concept of still-life painting to kids. I love his dark colors and moody shadows. Place a few colors of pain

t on a table and add some chalk and kids can easily re-create their own still-life paintings just like Cézanne.

Here are a few great art lessons and resources to get you thinking about your next Cézanne-inspired art project:

1. Watercolor & Tempera Bowl of Apples by Elementary Art Rocks. Art teacher Joslyn Johnson from Bear Tavern Elementary uses both watercolor paints and tempera in this project. She totally inspired me to combine these two mediums and the effects are amazing.
2. The Card Players by All That’s Good. Most lessons inspired by Cézanne are still life paintings but I love how home-school parent, Sarah of the blog, All That’s Goood (not a typo), allowed her boys to choose the Paul Cézanne painting they liked the most. I love her technique, too!
3. Paper and Chalk Tablescape by Art in the Big Green Room. One of favorite mediums to mix and create art with is paper and chalk pastel. Something wonderful happens to the paper when chalk is carefully applied to achieve contrast. Mrs. Kim from Spalding Elementary must think so too. This collection of tablescapes is divine!
4. Cézanne Video from Art Babble. This video does a great job of walking kids through one of Cézanne’s still life pantings. It’s not too long and engages kids by pointing out various sections of the painting.
5. Cézanne’s Astonishing Apples interactive media from MetMedia. If you have iPads in the art room or have access to a computer, this application allows kids to read (or be read to) a story about Cézanne, look closet at some of his paintings and other fun activities.
6. Happy Tempera Paintings from Teach and Shoot. This is one of my favorite blogs. I love Ashley’s style and aesthetics. She’s not only an art teacher but an illustrator and photographer as well. These Cézanne paintings are so darn cute. She has a great tutorial, so make sure to click over.

Deep Space Sparkle Cézanne resources….

Kindergarten Painted Pears Art Lesson

Fifth Grade Still-Life Mixed-Media Cézanne Art Lesson

Check out more Cézanne -Inspired lessons on Pinterest

Visit Deep Space Sparkle’s profile on Pinterest.

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