whimsical wednesday

we are celebrating international artists day for whimsical wednesday! who is your favorite artist? why is this your favorite artist? what is your favorite piece they created? find out something you don't know about them! share your favorite artist with the whimsey project for whimsical wednesday!

henri matisse, french painter, sculptor, paper artist, was born december 31, 1869 and died november 3, 1954.  he was first introduced to painting when recovering from illness. his mother gave him a set of art supplies to occupy him. that was the beginning of what was to be his life long avocation.

matisse is my favorite artist because i am drawn to the vibrancy of the color in most of his paintings. the figures are simple and inelegantly drawn, which i find most whimsical. the mismatch of shapes remind me of early american patchwork quilting. the riot of shapes and colors should not work but work it does. his works that are most aesthetically pleasing to me are his interiors; rooms i would enjoy being in. a few of these paintings include "interior at collioure", "the red room", "the blue window", "the black table", "girl in the green dress", "two women", "the daisies", "the lute", "interior in yellow", "the black fern", "red interior, still on a blue table", "red interior".  it's quite impossible for me to have a favorite matisse.

what i did not know about matisse before my research on his for whimsical wednesday is that he dabbled in pointillism, the process of creating images with dots of color. a few of his pointillistic works were dots but the dots soon became most like smudges. this was actually more interesting than dots as the color smudges added a layer of interest beyond what dots could offer. 

when my artistically inclined daughter was in seventh grade i asked her to create a matisse inspired painting for me. she painted an interior with two girls (her sister and herself!) sitting at a table enjoying tea. that painting has always had a place of prominence in my home(s).