Lessons:
P-7 Léon Bellefleur
Sans titre (Untitled)
Overview
- Discuss Sans titre (untitled) by Léon Bellefleur.
- Learn about shapes, overlap and primary colors.
- Create geometric abstract painting.
Reflection
- Who lives in the house that you created?
- What colors and objects did you add to describe mood of the house?
- What is the title of your artwork?
Sans titre (Untitled) 1992, oil on cardboard Copyright Léon Bellefleur, image credit: Montreal Museum of Art
Discussion Presentation
Discussion Questions
Where are the primary colors: Red? Blue? Yellow?
Bellefleur used primary colors, but also was a scientist! He mixed primary colors with each other to make other secondary colors, like orange, green, and purple
Find an object and one geometric shape it uses.
Bellefleur explored using big geometric shapes, like circles and squares. Triangles are created by drawing straight diagonal lines across the canvas.
Follow a line from edge to edge, what happens when it runs into a shape?
Some lines go through a shape. The face circle overlaps a line, so the line looks like it is under the face. Do you see the overlap? Then the line continues to the other edge.
Biography
- Léon Bellefleur (lay-ON bell-FLURR) was an artist from Canada.
- He was fascinated with the joy of children’s art and even inspired by his own kids’ drawings!
- He painted freely without thinking, believing them dreaming part of his brain made the best art.
- He painted abstract art inspired by child-like drawings.
Project
Materials
- 9×12 royal blue paper
- white oil pastel
- tempera paint: red, yellow, blue
- 1/2 in. tempera brush
- water container
- paper towels
- color wheel
Warm Up & Brainstorm
- No warmup required.
Project Directions
Geometric Abstract
1. Create big shapes.
Using white oil pastel on 9×12 royal blue paper, draw 2-3 large geometric shapes.
2. Create an overlapping line.
Draw an edge to edge line that “goes under” a shape.
3. Add more lines.
Draw 1 or 2 lines to create fun areas to paint.
4. Primary colors.
Start with primary colors: red, yellow, and blue on the paint palette. Show a color wheel.
5. Demo mixing colors.
Use big light color and small dark color to create secondary color.
6. Paint different shapes and areas.
7. Give artwork a title.
Pre-Lesson Preparation
- No prep required.
Day of Lesson Setup
- Demo drawing two shapes and one straight line that is “overlapped” by a shape as it goes edge-to-edge.
- Tip: black line the paper palette into six triangles. When kids are done, they can paint the triangles and create a color wheel.
- Palette of paint uses only primary colors.
- Explain secondary colors are created: orange, green, purple, by mixing two primary colors.
- Draw with white pastel for the project, no pencils.
- Demo mixing a secondary color: purple.
- Tip: avoid using water for cleaning brushes or show them how to clean a brush.