Drawing with Scissors

We studied the life and art of Henri Matisse.  We read a book about him called Drawing with Scissors.

Of course, the first question was, "How can you draw with scissors?!?"  We read the book and looked at his art with this question in mind.

Matisse started out as a painter and painted things so they looked real.

Soon, Matisse painted with more imagination.  He used brighter colors and bigger brushstrokes.

Some people who saw his art like this said that his paintings looked like "wild beasts" had painted them.  

As Matisse got older, he was often sick.  He had to stay in bed a lot and couldn't stand up for very long to paint.  So he started cutting out paper shapes and called it "drawing with scissors."  Here is a picture of Matisse cutting out his shapes!

Here are some of our favorite Matisse cutouts.

La Gerbe

The Snail

Les Codomas

Icarus

We decided to give it a go and create our own Matisse-inspired cutouts.

Watch this video to see our creations!