Today we have as really interesting artist to talk about. His name is Paul Klee (pronounced clay).

Paul Klee was a famous Swiss painter. Do you know where Switzerland is?

He was born on December 18 th, That was 130 years ago and life was very different. The electric lightbulb had just been invented, and a few people had telephones, but no cars or televisions. This is how a typical family looked in 1879-nothing like they do today!

Paul Klee was born into a very musical family. His mom was a trained singer and his dad was a music teacher. This is a picture of him with his sister, Mathilde. He is three years old.

Paul didn’t like school very much, except for art and music. His parents taught him how to play the violin when he was very young and for a long time, he couldn’t decide whether to be an artist or a musician.

Finally Paul decided to study art and he moved to Munich, Germany. At that time, Munich was a great center for art and music in Europe, and some artists were trying exciting new things.

Paul met some of those artists. They painted in a new way that he had never seen before! He liked the bright colors and simple shapes that they used. He had never seen paintings like this before The Yellow Cow by Franz Marc The Blue Mountain by Wassily Kandinsky

Paul worked very hard to learn all he could about drawing with lines Then he learned how to give things shape and make Them seem solid. Finally, he learned about color.

Paul traveled as much as he could, so he could see great artists all over the world. While he was traveling to Tunisia, Africa, Paul began to notice the colors in this beautiful and mysterious country. He thought that the light there gave everything a fairy-tale look, and he couldn’t wait to paint what he saw!

The next day Paul began paiting watercolors of Tunisia. Paul used different shapes and colors to show how unique and special Tunisia was.

Up until this time, artists had painted what they liked to look at or what they saw. This is a very famous painting called the Mona Lisa. When you look at this realistic painting, you can see what the woman looks like, but you can’t tell what she is like inside.

Paul Klee wanted to show the emotions INSIDE a person, not just outside. And he thought it was important to give the person looking at his painting a special feeling deep down inside.

If you look at one of his paintings for a long time, you might feel happiness, or energy or a sense of movement.

Paul also gave some of his paintings a musical feeling. Some people can feel rhythm when they look at his paintings

He also really loved using color. I want you to think about sitting in front of a roaring fire in the fall, roasting marshmallows. What colors come to mind?

How do those colors make you feel?

Now think about a cool day on the ocean. What colors come to mind?

How do those colors make you feel?

Artists use warm colors like red, orange and yellow to make us feel happy and excited and cozy.

Some artists like cool colors like blues and purples, which can make you feel calm or even a little bit sad.

The title of this painting is called, “Head of a Man.” Would you have thought that we were going to make a head with those shapes? You guys don’t have red circles or yellow triangles on your face, do you? These faces don’t look like that!

That’s because those paintings were in the style of realism-the artist decided to draw something just as he or she saw it. But there are lots of types of art – some are abstract, which don’t show real objects, or surreal, which shows real objects in different ways, or primitivism, which is painted as if by a young child

You can also combine the different forms of art. Sometimes, a painter might paint in many different styles, or a combination of them. Some artists are able to take just a few shapes and make something very recognizable with them.

I can I can take these few shapes – two circles, a triangle and a small curve, and what did I make?

My art isn’t realistic, but it still is showing you something real. You can even tell how he is feeling – he looks happy, doesn’t he?

Now, let’s look at our picture - What do you see in the picture? What colors does he use? Is this a man? A woman? An animal? How do you think the person is feeling

Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones. Paul knew that some people would find is painting difficult to understand, but he didn’t care. He wanted to show the feelings inside of his paintings, not what something looked like on the outside. He said:

Paul Klee’s work is fun to look at with all its bright colors and shapes.

Now we are going to make our own masterpiece. Paul Klee liked to work with a variety of textures, shapes and materials – and you are also going to have those. And you can see as we look through these pictures of his works, he really enjoyed using warm colors. So, we’re going to be doing the same.

You can use his picture for inspiration, but remember, this is your own masterpiece!