One Saturday last September I took part in an online art class called ‘Painting with scissors’ a glimpse into Henri Matisse’s playful approach to art. I thoroughly enjoyed expressing myself with some coloured paper and a pair of scissors. The class saw its participants copying many of Matisse’s masterpieces however, my favourite activity was expressing myself cutting my own shape out to music.
For some background here is Matisse’s story
I’m sure this is something many of you would enjoy. Why don’t you have a go!
There are lots of YouTube videos if you search painting or drawing with scissors.
What you will need:
- a variety of coloured paper and a bigger piece for building your collage
- scissors
- glue
- your imagination!
Some of the tutorials suggest you use a pencil or marker pen and draw your shapes out first, you can do this if you want I myself prefer to just cut out the shapes that came into my head and really express myself. The great thing about this type of art is there is no right or wrong you can use everything you cut including what you might think of as the off cuts – the bits left over from the object you have cut out. If your cutting isn’t perfect that is fine too.
When you have finished cutting shapes from different coloured papers (these can be ready made coloured sheets or you could paint your own just like Matisse) you can stick them onto a bigger pieces of paper or card and make a collage.
I’d love to see your work when you’ve finished – please do take pictures and click here to send them to me. Why not start with the plain coloured paper like Henri Matisse but if you feel like it you could experiment with other paper you might have at home like wallpaper, wrapping paper, old magazines or newspapers (just check its ok with the grown ups first!)
For anyone (including parents) who is interested this is the class I took. There is a cost to it but it is ‘pay what you can afford’ so should be accessible to all.
