Sinbad the Sailor - Klee

sinbad the sailor - paul Klee

Paul Klee (Pronounced: Paul Clay) was born in Switzerland in 1879. He was a talented musician and artist, but decided to become an artist. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He married a concert pianist and while his wife worked out of the house, Paul became a “stay at home dad” and worked on his art.

Although Klee is now considered a master of color theory, he spent a long time in his search for his sense of color. At first, Klee drew in black and white, saying he would never be a painter.During a trip to Tunisia, he became impressed by the quality of light there, and declared himself a painter, stating "Color and I are one. I am a painter." He worked with different media, and liked to combine them in one work. Klee became one of the best colorists of his time. A colorist is a painter able to achieve special effects with color. He was interested in the creativity in children's art and many of his works have a childlike quality. Paul Klee’s was a Swiss born painter, with a unique style that was influenced by expressionism, cubism, surrealism, and orientalism.

The painting of Sinbad the Sailor is based on the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor, a fictional character whose adventures can be found in the book '1001 Arabian Nights'. It is believed that the painting is based on his third voyage, where he has to battle monsters.

questions:

• Paul Klee's paintings have been called childlike. What do you see in this painting that reminds you of a child's drawing? Is this a good description of this work?
• What colors do you see? What effect does the use of color create in this painting? Hint — primary colors, focal point in whites and creams.
• What does the light area surrounded by dark edges remind you of? Hint — maybe an island, something dark and scary out there, etc.
• What shapes do you see? Which shape is repeated most often? What shapes did the artist use to create Sinbad? The monsters? The boat?
• Discuss the animals. Do they look real or imaginary? Scary or friendly?
• A good compare and contrast question and discussion session can be made between this print, Winslow Homer's Breezing Up (Art Awareness print #20), and The Great Wave (Art Awareness print #8). The content is the same (men on a boat) but the pieces are very different in style, colors, positioning, etc.

activities:

Prepare before the lesson: Fold a sheet of white paper 4 times to end up with 16 squares per page. Make one for each student. Let the students recreate the painting with crayons, covering the entire page with color, to show the effect of the folds.

Using the attached blank candy cane or pumpkin designs (or similar theme for the time of year in which you present), have them decorate using Paul Klee's designs. Each section can be decorated/colored with his designs and you can have them create a grid background as well.

You could prepare an assortment of colorful squares of construction paper that could be glued onto a blue or black background, somewhat Klee’s ocean. Give the kids some small white pieces of paper on which they could draw Sinbad, the whale, the tub or any other objects they would like add, and they can then color them, cut them out, and paste them onto sea.

Invite the students to share an imaginary place they thought about as young children.

Read a short story or poem about an imaginary place to the students. Have them draw how they see this place.

Read the story of Sinbad beforehand, then retell it to the students.

Using the 'Discovering Great Artists' book in the resource drawer, read pages 62 and 63, then let the children attempt a Klee inspired one line drawing based on the painting Sinbad the Sailor.

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