The Wild Beasts

I am both happy and sad that this will be my last time posting about the work of my middle school students until September. Happy that the school year is over. Sad because I really will miss a lot of them- especially the 9th graders who are moving on to high school.

One of the last projects I assigned my painting class was a landscape painting in the style of the Fauvists using acrylic paint.

Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. (Wikipedia)

Following is an example of a Fauvist painting:

Boats by Andre Derain, 1905

Below you will see a few examples of how my students interpreted what I taught them into their own Fauvist style painting:


I think they did an amazing job. I'm happy to have a break but am looking forward to a new school year full of talented little artists in just a few short months.