Books:  Westport Library books on Klee.  KHS Library – 1^st Book of Art (selected faces).

Other: cut-out paper face shapes-geometric, played Mozart’s “Magic Flute” CD-Klee loved this opera.

Websites: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klee/ http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee.html http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/klee_paul.html 

Description: On off white charcoal paper w/chalk pastels, children drew portrait of a classmate. They experimented with blending the pastels & using geometric forms for face parts.

Materials: off-white charcoal paper, chalk pastels

Presentation Time:  15 mins. talking & show – 45 mins. drawing.

We looked at some his paintings of faces.  We talked about using geometric shapes & what different classmates faces shapes looked like.  We talked about ABSTRACT representation. 

Today we will create a portrait of a classmate at your table.  Paul Klee used oil paint to create his harlequin but we will use chalk pastels.  Start by choosing a classmate at your table to draw & decide what shapes you see in their face.  Start by doing an outline drawing of the face, eyes, etc.  Use geometric shapes. Then color in your shapes, as you like. Our paper today is sort of pink If your classmate has a different color skin you can add color to your drawing to make it look more like your friend.  Or you can create your own colors for your portrait.

Paul Klee-born 1879 Switzerland

-          His grandmother encouraged him to draw

-          When he was 16 he used to draw little doodles & cartoons in the margins of his notebooks

-          When he was a little older he went to art school where he struggled to learn to paint.  He didn’t feel like he was very good at painting

-          When he was an adult he kept practicing w/color & paint. With the help of his painter friends he finally succeeded at painting

Klee believed that no work was ever really finished because the world was in “flux”. (Fluid, moving, time passes, things change).  Klee loved the artwork of children because of what he called the “raw energy of the child artist.” He like to paint & draw like a child. (Discussed the diff. between how kids & adults behave at the playground). He loved the theatre.  He was very interested in the masks & costumes that people wore to disguise themselves. (Mozart’s opera – The Magic Flute).  This is a painting of a face wearing a mask. Can you tell what character it is? NO! (Harlequin).  What makes this face different from your classmates faces?  What makes it similar? (geometric shapes) Use cut out shapes to demonstrate.  When you look at a person can you see that their head is kind of oval shaped or round or triangular? What about their eyes, nose or mouths? (held shapes up to classmates faces to match shapes!). Let’s look at some more of his artwork. Examples: “Boy With Toys”, “Scenario”, “Locksmith”, “Wandering Artist”, “Arab Song”, “Mask of Fear”, “Cat & Bird”, “Clown”. We also looked at “The Twittering Machine”. My son loved it so he wanted his classmates to see it. They loved it!