Overview
1949, Varnished tempera on canvas, 81 cm. x 54.5 cm., Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Photo Credit: Martin Bühler, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel © 2007 Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
In this lesson, students will:
- Analyze People and Dog in the Sun and Miró’s use of repeated shapes, lines and colors to express feelings and ideas
- Identify how Miró used organic and geometric shapes to balance the painting
- Discuss Miró’s use of positive and negative spaces and his abstract composition
- Draw a doodle using Miró’s automatic drawing techniques;
- Create abstract works of art, using a digital paint app
Lesson Teaching Notes
A document of summary pages on the lesson’s Key Concepts, Discussion Questions, Artist Points, and Project Directions.
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Class Discussion
Miró drew from his imagination. He closed his eyes and made lines automatically, without looking at what he was drawing. In an automatic drawing, accidental lines become shapes.
Miró arranged lines and colors into a balanced composition, and then turned his abstract doodles into a story with two people, called “People and Dog in the Sun.” These abstract figures have arms, legs, heads, and bodies. They don’t look like real people. There is one figure standing upright and another that is upside down. There are also other figures at the bottom of the picture. Which head is part of two figures?
Miró drew expressive lines and shapes with his eyes closed. After he drew several lines, he opened his eyes and added other lines. Then he filled in some spaces with expressive colors.
The doodles are whimsical, or playful, not realistic. Here is a whimsical story about this picture:
Today, I saw the strangest people under a red sun. They had three strands of hair, and funny eyes and noses made with a curving line ending in two dots. The one with a tiny head was wearing a colorful jacket, and the other was upside down and wearing a black dress, colorful stockings, and a funny hat. With them was a dog with a curling tail. They were surprised to see me in the middle of the day. Can you find me in the picture? (I’m the star.)
Some of the lines become the outlines of figures, a sun, and a star.
Curving lines form soft, circular bodies and heads. Some end in spirals.
Straight lines form sharp, triangular shapes that look like necks, arms, legs, and skirts. Some lines make hair, eyes, and noses. Some lines divide the larger shapes.
Does the dog share a head with the upside-down person? What is the skinny figure wearing a red and blue skirt? Are the big black dots its eyes, or the legs of another creature walking up the side of the picture? Turn the picture upside down to see if it still makes sense. Where is the dog? At the bottom of the painting several doodles have two legs.
The circular sun is balanced by the big round head. Many black lines outside of the figures are balanced by the red sun. The two bodies balance each other. Black and red are balanced throughout the picture. The blue and red are balanced in the multicolored dress. If Miró had painted the sun yellow, would the colors feel balanced?
Repetition of the color red keeps our eyes moving around the painting. He repeated green twice, once in each figure. He used yellow only once. If If Miro had repeated more yellow spots, would the painting feel balanced?
Miró played with colors to make the picture more interesting. He painted with mostly bright primary colors: red, blue, and yellow, with only two spots of green. The colors show the figures and make the sun important. They add balance to the picture.
The bright colors create a happy mood. How would the mood change if red sun were green? What if the sun were yellow? What mood would we feel if the sun were blue?
The facial features are a curving line for the nose connecting two dots for the eyes. There is no mouth. Both faces also have three strands of hair.
Most of the figures are irregular, organic shapes. One is bean shaped with long curving arms and a triangular skirt. Another is bell shaped with candy cane legs and puffy arms.
We see geometric shapes in the circular heads, eyes, and sun.
The figures are 2-D or flat, like paper dolls. There is no shading to give them form and make them look 3-D like real people. The background is empty, in contrast to the many colorful shapes.
The figure’s heads are the negative, or empty space, of the background, which is the canvas he painted on.
The colorful figures have positive shapes. The negative space of the large head balances the positive shape of the sun. Would the picture be balanced if the head were a color? What would it feel like if the sun were a negative space?
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Project Directions
Abstract Color Doodle
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Reflections
Artist Statement
Downloads and Resources
Additional Links
App Tutorials:
- Sketchbook Edu PowerPoint
- Adobe Draw PowerPoint
- Brushes Redux PowerPoint
- Paper 53 PowerPoint
- Sketch Pad PowerPoint
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