Paul Cézanne's “Still Life with Apples” turned 3D
Background:
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French painter who played a key role in the development of modern art. He was born in Aix-en-Provence and started his art training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Aix before moving to Paris in the 1860s. In Paris, he studied at the Académie Suisse and met other artists like Edouard Manet and Camille Pissarro. Though he faced many rejections from the Salon, he eventually showed his work with the Impressionists, but his style differed from theirs because he focused more on shapes and structure rather than just light and color. Cézanne started experimenting with plein-air painting under Pissarro's guidance, and his later work was known for turning nature into simple shapes like spheres and cubes. Over time, his use of color became more subtle and complex. Although his work wasn't fully appreciated during his life, after his death, Cézanne's innovative ideas influenced many artists, especially Cubists, and his focus on form and space made him an essential figure in modern art.
Why I Reconstructed This Piece and How:
As someone who had never heard of the artist Paul Cézanne, I was impressed with his work and style when I first saw it. With a focus on fruit and simplicity, I thought this would be a fun project. I scrolled through his paintings and landed on “Still Life With Apples,” a simple piece of work that I could see would be simple enough to make into a three-dimensional ceramics piece without losing key components of the art.
I began with an idea; I’m not one for drawing out ideas as I tend to have them in my brain, think about the base, and then work my way up. So, I started with my base; I got a plate and put a sheet of plastic over it to ensure the slab of clay I molded into it wouldn’t stick. From there, I started making the apples; this part was rather tricky as I needed to shape a ball of clay into the shape of an apple and hollow out the bottom. After that, I slipped and scored around the part I hollowed out and a small part on the plate to attach the apple. This is where the most critical part came in. I needed to poke holes in the top of the apples to be sure that they wouldn’t explode inside the kiln. To top it off, I added a stem to each apple, a lemon, and glazes.
Reflection:
A few troubles I ran into were the plate cracking after the first time I ran it through the kiln, I had somewhat expected this because there was such heavy object along the edge of the fragile plate. The other trouble I ran into was putting glazes on because it was so hard to get between the fruit and the fact that I couldn’t find the colors I wanted. If I were to do this again, I would start the project earlier so I’m not rushing it in 3 class periods. This would have allowed me to give more time to let the plate get leather hard before I put apples onto it, and it would have allowed me to spend more time on glazing so I would turn out better.
