Dearest Friends

Welcome back to our Friday Note – our weekly collection of writerly thoughts. 

Observing

Today in 1954 French artist Henri Matisse died (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954).

He was a pioneer of the Fauvist movement in French painting, taking its name from les fauves meaning wild beasts, a style “characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork” – Tate.

Initially a lawyer, Matisse had no intention of being an artist. It was only through a temporary period of enforced bedrest that he took up the pastime and fell in love with painting.

His work includes paintings, prints, sculptures and his famous ‘cut-outs’, which he produced later in his life when his declining health meant that he could no longer paint. 

Reading

Matisse made 300 cut-outs in his career, a technique that he developed to “link drawing and colour in a single movement”.

Read: The evolution of Matisse’s magical cut-outs on Reader’s Digest. 

Creating

Matisse likened poetry to oxygen –  “just as when you leap out of bed you fill your lungs with fresh air” – he would read poetry every morning before starting work.

Think of a poem that nourishes or energises you. Can you create a piece of art inspired by the words, either based on the subject or the sentiment of the poem? Perhaps a simple cut-out or collage using newspaper or magazine scraps.

Photo: Dark Angels at Henri Matisse’s old house, Villa Reve, in Vence – April 2019