In the style of Corneille

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. paper towels
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille

Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist who is born in Belgium and died this month in France. He is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter who was highly admired by Corneille.
As a painter Corneille is an autodidact. In his early years, he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes. In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBRA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBRA group. The artists' group leaves only three years, but has been the basic for the work of Corneille. According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing unprejudiced with colours and shapes.
Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?

Show examples of Corneille's work on the digital board. What issues do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the salient features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

In this lesson, students may only sketch very briefly, to avoid drawing to many details and to force them to work big. Allow them to scetch with a pencil for only 5 minutes. Children can also choose to sketch with a narrow brush and light yellow paint. This will automatically result in working big with little details. The yellow lines can easily be painted with different colours later.

Sketching with yellow paint

Scetch the outline of a cat or a bird and make sure this animal reaches at least three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Paint the animail in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background too. Leave the work to dry and outline everything using a narrow brush and black paint. Paint with black letters your name somewhere at the work, just like Corneille did. Glue or staple the painting on a coloured sheet.

All artworks made by students of 11 years old