zondag 20 september 2009

Cats like Rosina Wachtmeister



Rosina Wachtmeister (1939, Austria)
Wachtmeister (1939) is an Austrian artist who is specialised in making collages with various. She uses often gold or silver metal paper in her work. The early work of Rosina Wachtmeister are sculptured puppets. She used these puppets in her own puppet theatre.
In 1974 Rosina Wachtmeister moved with her husband to Capena, near Rome. She gets inspired from daily things: the silence of Capena, the sun, her cats and music.
We look at some paintings from Wachtmeister and we name the distinctive characteristics:
  1. she uses silver in every paiting
  2. faces are divided into colour patches
  3. she uses often warm colours
  4. backgrounds are decorated cheerfully
  5. figures are outlined with black or coloured lines
  6. eyes are very expressive because of those (black or coloured) lines
You need:
  1. white drawing paper A3 size
  2. tempera in different colours, including silver
  3. brushes
  4. newspapers
  5. jars with water
  6. tissues to clean and dry the brushes
Students draw with pencil a quick sketch from one or more cats on their sheets and start painting right away, considering the characteristics of the style of Wachtmeister: silver paint, big eyes, warm colours, divided faces etc. Outlining the figures has to be done also with tempera and a thin brush. This has to be the last chore, of course. So you get a good separation between the foreground and background and you can remove some stains. If the paintings are dry, we stick them on a matching background sheet. And of course we sign our work, just like Wachtmeister, with a black signature!

3 opmerkingen:

  1. Thank you for introducing me to a new artist. Rosina's work is beautiful. It is similar to Laurel Burch's, but a bit more carefree! I am really in love with her collages. Thank you for sharing a student lesson about the cats. Your blog is great!

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  2. Thanks for your reaction! I'm sure your students will love painting cats like Wachtmeister!

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  3. I love this project! I'd love to try it with my students. Thanks for intorducing me to new artist.
    Patty
    Deep Space Sparkle

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