Calais School students in the lower and upper schools enjoyed learning about Pablo Picasso in Mrs. Christine Orna’s recent art classes which worked on a unit on cubism.

“Cubism paintings look at objects from many angles and show all their angles on one flat canvas,” Mrs. Orna told her upper school students

“Cubism is abstract and not realistic,” she said, then showing them many examples reflecting cubism including several portraits painted by Picasso on flat canvases.

Cubism was created in 1907 when Picasso and artist Georges Braque painted different subjects including objects and figures in the same picture, creating abstract paintings which appeared fragmented and represented a novel approach to representing reality.

Student Chris W. noted that he was very inspired by the lesson and painted a colorful abstract painting featuring triangles and circles including a round face in bright colors. He frowned in concentration as he finished the last circle on his painting. “I think cubism paintings are really colorful,” he said, adding “I really enjoy using colors.”

Students were allowed to use a variety of mediums including colored pencils, markers and pastels in the elementary school. High school students were also offered the option of using paint, Mrs. Orna said.

“It guess this is kind of fun,” said Tony as he worked on his abstract drawing with magic markers, adding “it is better than normal art.”

“It’s really creative and pretty,” added Sarah.

Adriana worked on a cubism drawing with colored pencils and reflected “personally, I like classical art a lot better than abstract art, but it is still fun.”

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