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Use the following artworks and activities to inspire creativity in your students.

Lyonel Feininger, The Bicycle Race, 1912

Lyonel Feininger, The Bicycle Race, 1912, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.17

Stamp Patterns

Materials: foam blocks; paint; scissors

Time: 30 minutes

Look at the way repeated shapes and lines create patterns in these two artworks. Cut simple shapes into one-inch foam blocks, making stamps. Then have students dip their foam stamps into paint to create decorative, rhythmic patterns. 

See inspiration and sample artworks:

Stamp Patterns

Henri Matisse, Pianist and Checker Players, 1924, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.25
Stamp Patterns
Stamp Patterns
Kay Sage, A Finger on the Drum, 1940

Kay Sage, A Finger on the Drum, 1940, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the estate of the artist), 2014.136.92

Imagined Scenes

Materials: paper; crayons or colored pencils; coloring templates

Time: 20 minutes

Have students select an ordinary object from their classroom to draw or trace onto templates of surrealist landscapes. Then have them color the scene in and describe their chosen scene. Alternatively, the students could imagine their own fantastical settings, such as outer space, a far-away kingdom, or an island beach, in which they can include their classroom objects. Download coloring templates: Magritte's La Condition Humaine; Tanguy's The Look of Amber; Sage's A Finger on the Drum.

See inspiration and sample artworks:

An interior window framed by brown curtains shows a view into a landscape with grass, shrubs, trees, and a dirt path beneath a blue sky with white clouds in this vertical painting. Upon closer inspection, the three legs of a wooden easel, the clip holding a canvas at the top, and a white, stapled edge draws our attention to the fact that a painted canvas rests directly in front of the window. 
Imagined Scenes

René Magritte, La condition humaine, 1933, oil on canvas, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1987.55.1
A charcoal-gray, pointed, tower-like form wrapped with cords or vines rises to our left against a barren desert in this horizontal painting. Light falls from our left onto the sharply pointed tip of the tower. A deep, jagged shadow cast from a formation outside of our view to our left falls across the oatmeal-brown desert floor. Two rounded white forms, perhaps stones, lie near the lower right corner, and cast ink-black shadows on the ground. The horizon comes just over a third of the way up the composition. Along the horizon, two clusters of buildings and low hills are painted with tones of hazy indigo blue and tan. The sky above is ice blue, and a veil-like cloud stretches from the horizon to our left of center up into the right corner. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “Kay Sage 40.”
Imagined Scenes

Kay Sage, A Finger on the Drum, 1940, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the estate of the artist), 2014.136.92
Imagined Scenes

Yves Tanguy, The Look of Amber, 1929, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 1984.75.1
Imagined Scenes
Imagined Scenes
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric", 1895-1896, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1990.127.1

Pretend Play

Materials: none

Time: 15 minutes

Using these images, have students pretend to be the figures in the paintings. What would they say if they could talk?

See inspiration artworks:

Pretend Play

Diego Rivera, Viva Zapata, 1932, lithograph in black on Rives BFK paper, Gift of Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner, 1990.106.51
Painted entirely in shades of blue, this vertical scene shows a woman, an elderly man, and a young child standing close to each other near the edge of gently lapping waves. All three people have gray complexions tinged with blue, are barefoot, and their features, clothing, and bodies are outlined. To our left, the woman’s back is to us, and her face is turned in profile to our right as she looks down at the ground. Her navy-blue, nearly black hair is pulled up in a loose bun. She wears a deep ocean-blue shawl over a long skirt that covers her entire body except for bare toes peeking out under the hem. The form of the shawl protrudes a bit on the right as if she holds her arm across her body. The slightly taller man stands across from her to our right with his body mirroring the woman’s. He crosses his arms tightly across his chest as he gazes down in profile. The eye we can see is deeply shadowed, and his hands are tucked into his elbows. He has a beard and short, dark hair with streaks of sky blue. His long, marine-blue shirt blends into his pants, which are cut off at the ankles. Unlike the woman, he stands with the weight on one foot, the other knee bent. To our right and in front of the man, the child stands facing our left in profile. He has short, dark hair, and he looks toward the woman. He touches or gestures near the man’s thigh with his right hand, farther from us, and holds his other out in front of his waist. His shawl has a reddish tint, which contrasts with his ankle-length, stone-blue pants. The trio stands on aquamarine-tinted sand before gentle waves along a shoreline. In the top third of painting, the sky is a block of celestial blue. The artist signed his name, “Picasso,” in a dark blue in the lower right corner and dated the painting, “1903” in the upper right.
Pretend Play

Pablo Picasso, The Tragedy, 1903, oil on wood, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.196
We look slightly down onto a stage, at a woman who dances at the center of this square painting. The pale, white skin on her face is tinged with slate-blue shadows and heightened noticeably with pink blush at the cheekbones. She wears crimson-red lipstick and her dark brown eyebrows are peaked over blue eyes. Two flaring pink flowers, each about the size of the woman’s face, are pinned in the woman’s flame-red hair. The black bodice of her dress has puffed, elbow-length sleeves and a low-cut square neckline. The lime-green skirt flares around her dancing feet to billow up and reveal layers of bubblegum pink underneath. Her body is angled to our left as she points her left, black-stockinged foot and holds her arms by her sides. Behind her, thirteen people dressed in sapphire-blue, ocean-green, and black costumes suggest a royal court, including a dark-haired man who wears a brick-red bolero style suit. He stands near the woman to our right, watching her dance.
Pretend Play

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric", 1895-1896, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1990.127.1
Pretend Play

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Horseman in a Storm, model c. 1878, cast after 1894, bronze, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1980.44.10
Jean Dubuffet, Façades d'immeubles (Building Façades), 1946

Jean Dubuffet, Façades d'immeubles (Building Façades), 1946, oil on canvas, Gift of the Stephen Hahn Family Collection, 1995.30.3

Scratch City

Materials: black construction paper; oil pastels; paper clips or small rulers

Time: 20 minutes

Inspired by the cityscapes of Jean Dubuffet, have students create their own scratch art. Have students choose two to three oil pastel colors to cover their black paper with. To cut shapes and buildings into the layers of pastel, students can use a paper clip or the corner of a small ruler. Students will scratch away pastel to create the buildings, streets, and cars for their cityscapes.

See sample artworks:

Scratch City
Scratch City
Odilon Redon, Large Vase with Flowers, c. 1912

Odilon Redon, Large Vase with Flowers, c. 1912, oil on canvas, Gift of the Honorable John C. Whitehead, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.64.1

Tissue Paper Flowers

Materials: tissue paper; vase templates; glue sticks

Time: 20 minutes

Using paper, make your own flower arrangement. On the template of Redon's Large Vase with Flowers, have students glue crumpled pieces of tissue paper on the flower outlines. Students can color in or use patterned paper for the vase itself. 

See sample artworks:

Tissue Paper Flowers
Tissue Paper Flowers
Arshile Gorky, Organization, 1933-1936

Arshile Gorky, Organization, 1933-1936, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1979.13.3

Shape Box

Materials: construction paper; glue sticks; box; scissors

Time: 20 minutes

Make a game of composing abstract compositions. Fill a box with varied geometric shapes cut from brightly colored construction paper. With eyes closed, have each student pick five shapes from the box to glue onto a piece of paper. Students can experiment with a few different arrangements before deciding on one to glue down.

See sample artworks:

Shape Box
Shape Box
Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905

Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.7

Tissue Paper Window Scene

Materials: precut tissue paper squares; glue sticks; sheet protectors

Time: 30 minutes

Using precut squares of multicolored tissue paper, try constructing a window scene, changing colors to reflect how you feel about what you see. Have students use the template of Matisse's Open Window, Collioure and glue different pieces of tissue paper on the various parts of the scene. When done, have students put their papers inside a sheet protector to complete the "window" look. 

See sample artworks:

Tissue Paper Window Scene
Tissue Paper Window Scene
John Constable, The White Horse, 1818-1819

John Constable, The White Horse, 1818-1819, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.9

Viewfinder

Materials: cardboard tubes; paper; coloring supplies

Time: 15 minutes

Have students use cardboard tubes as viewfinders to explore their world more closely. Select any scene (maybe an outdoor scene such as the one depicted above) and focus on a detail of an object, a face, or a setting through the viewfinder to be the subject of a drawing. 

Redon's Large Vase of Flowers coloring template

Matisse's Open Window, Collioure coloring template

Sage's The Finger on the Drum coloring template

Tanguy's A Look of Amber coloring template

Magritte's La Condition Humaine coloring template

Send images of your students' projects that follow these activities - email [email protected]

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