Henri Matisse was a French painter who later developed his signature paper collage technique later in life after health challenges refined him to a wheelchair.
He described this process as “painting with scissors”. His assistants would paint paper with gouache and Henri would cut them into fabulous shapes.
In this project we are inspired by the organic shapes made from vivid colours that Henri produced.
You can take this project a step further by making painted paper to use or simply use construction paper. Other than cutting up scrap paper if needed, this project is no-prep!
Time required: 30-40 minutes
*if doing painted paper first, please allow time for this at least one day prior to allow dry time.
Materials:
Black paper (I chose this for the background but you can do any background colour)
Scrap paper
If you don’t have a scrap bin available already, just cut up colourful paper into different sized pieces. This will allow students the opportunity to make different sized elements for their piece.
Scissors
Glue stick
Steps:
Unlike many other projects with clearly defined steps, this project encourages students to be creative and have fun with their scissors.
Before starting it’s a good idea to look at some examples of Matisse’s collage work to notice the shapes he uses.
A great book to use is called Henri’s Scissor’s. You can find a read aloud on YouTube.
I did not pre-draw any shapes. I let the scissors move around the paper to create shapes organically. Model this for your students.
Students may choose to glue as they go or arrange shapes and glue at the end.
*Note: construction paper tends to stain when glue gets on it. Be careful and only put glue down on the back and don’t lift it once it’s placed.
