Linden Students Master Cubism

By Brie Cooper, Art Teacher

Linden's Grade 7 and 8 Visual Arts students have been reviewing stylistic developments in the early twentieth century in order to expand the vocabulary of their own visual communication. One of the most influential styles of this era was Cubism, initiated by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Students have studied the ideals of Cubism in a variety of different workshops that have helped them train their minds to think like a Cubist artist. Instead of simply copying nature, they have instead learned to focus on portraying objects in geometric forms. They have spent time designing their own Cubist composition by experimenting with still life compositions from multiple and/or contrasting vantage points. They have also learned how to apply a monochromatic colour palette to their paintings to showcase their knowledge of acrylic painting and pencil crayon techniques.

“The Circle Workshop”

Grade 7 and 8 students worked together to sketched a still life on a single sheet of paper by moving around the room adding alternate viewpoints into their design. We stood up, sat down, rotated, and tried to see our still life from in as many different viewpoints possible, even standing on our desks! We used charcoal to capture what we saw. Upon completion, we had a number of ‘rough’ designs that we did not need for our final copy. We put them to good use, cutting them out and positioning them on a large canvas. From here, we added a white wash and painted in more angles to help the piece look more abstracted, broken down, and Cubist!

The final group artwork, pictured below, will be auctioned at our annual Art Show on May 4th, 2017 to help raise funds for the Art Program!