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Still Life Flower Collages

Still Life Flower Collages

Difficulty: Easy

Developed by: Margaret P. Budde, Lower School Art Teacher, Louisiana

Products Used:

Other Tools and Materials Needed:

  • Hole Punch
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Trait-tex® Yarn (optional)
  • Cotton (optional)

Lesson Plan Ideas

Learning Objectives for Grades: 1-4

Students will:

  • Understand that a still life is a type of artwork that depicts of an arrangement of natural and/or man-made objects. The objects may include items such as food, flowers, plants, rocks, shells, vases, glasses, and books.
  • View Still Life Flower Paintings from books, calendars or in the online examples below by Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet.
  • Understand that a collage is a type of artwork where paper, ribbon, photographs, yarn and found objects are glued to a piece of paper or canvas.
  • View different kinds of silk or real flowers to note the parts of a flower (petals, stem, leaves, stamen, pistil, ovary).
  • Realize that real flowers are three-dimensional, not flat as in a drawing.
  • Use construction paper to create three-dimensional flowers, a tablecloth, and a flowerpot or vase.
  • Glue the tablecloth, flowers and flowerpot/vase to a construction paper background to create a still life flower collage.

Project Steps:

  1. Step 1:

    Explain that a still life painting is a type of artwork that depicts an arrangement of natural and/or man-made objects. Provide examples of still life flower paintings from books, calendars or websites (see below).

    1. Matisse Websites
    2. Van Gogh Websites
    3. Monet Websites

  2. Step 2:

    Provide a variety of silk or real flowers for the students to use to examine the flower parts. This can be simplified for younger students (petals, stem, leaves) and more technical for older students (petals, stamen, pistil, ovary, stem, leaves). For examples and explanation of flower parts see:http://extension.illinois.edu/gpe/case4/c4facts1a.html

  3. Step 3:

    Have them notice how the flowers are three-dimensional, not flat as in a drawing.

    For the construction of the flowers and vase

    You will need: 

    • 2" x 3" rectangles of green Tru-Ray® Construction Paper (at least six per child) torn or cut for leaves
    • 1" x 9" strips of Tru-Ray® Construction Paper in various colors for the tablecloth (at least one per child)
    • 5" x 5" squares of Tru-Ray® Construction Paper in various colors for the vase (at least one per child)
    • 9" x 12" sheets of Tru-Ray® Construction Paper for the
    1. Tear or cut construction paper to create the parts of the flower. Glue the parts together, if possible.
      1. Make three flowers, either one or more kinds of flowers. Hole punchers can be used to make pollen.
      2. Also optional is to have available yarn, cotton, or the like to add more texture to the flowers.
    2. Tear or cut out stems and leaves.
    3. Choose colors for the background, tablecloth and vase. Tear or cut out the vase.

    To create the Still Life Flower Collage:

    1. Glue the tablecloth to the lower edge of the background.
    2. Next arrange the flowers with stems and leaves on the background.
    3. Arrange the vase to the collage.
    4. Once you are happy with your creation, glue the flowers to the background page.
    5. Glue the vase.
    6. Enjoy your still life flower collage!

    Student Samples:

    Example 1

    Example 2

    Example 3

    Example 4

    Example 5

    Example 6

    Example 7

    Example 8

    Example 9

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