Art Classes: Level III

Level III-Art Lesson 10: The Russian Matryoshka

Learn two folk art techniques: a comma stroke with a brush & dots with a medicine dropper

The lesson is suitable for students in grade 5 through adult.

Art Lesson Description:

We combine the rich folk tradition of the Russian nesting doll with a short lesson in Russian folk art painting techniques and an introduction to Russia’s incredible history.

Students will learn an easy way to create a symmetrical outline of the matryoshka.

They will learn two painting techniques commonly learned by Russian school children—
- Using a medicine dropper to make dots, and
- Learning a simple comma stroke with a round #6 watercolor brush.

Then they will use these two techniques, along with a gel pen for details, to paint the matryoshka.

This lesson includes both POWERPOINT and VIDEO versions of the lesson plus a downloadable printout of a matryoshka outline.

List of Supplies for Each Student:

OPTIONAL: print-out of “The Matryoshka Outline” (this comes with the lesson)
1 sheet of printer paper
Scissors
Pencil
One sheet of 11" x 15" watercolor paper (#ad)
Masking tape (#ad)
Drawing board: (#ad) (Make your own by cutting an 18" x 24" piece of 1/4" masonite)
Tempera paints (#ad) or acrylic paints (#ad)
Paint palette (#ad)
Medicine dropper (#ad)
Set of brushes (#ad)

Suggestions for Cross-Curricular Connections:

Art

Order a set of rather inexpensive blank matryoshka dolls (#ad) and paint the dolls, using what you learned in the lesson!
Watch a Russian folk artist paint a Russian flower.
See another kind of Russian folk art style.

History

Learn about the history of the matryoshka
Watch a video introduction to making a wooden matryoshka.
A nesting doll is often thought of as a mother protecting her children. Learn the history of Mother’s Day in the United States.

Literature

For younger children:
- Babushka’s Doll (#ad) by Patricia Polacco.
- Rechenka’s Eggs (#ad) by Patricia Polacco.
- The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (#ad)by Arthur Ransome.
- The Magic Nesting Doll (#ad) by Jacqueline K. Ogburn.
- The Littlest Matryoshka (#ad) by Corinne Demas Bliss.
- Matryoshka (#ad) by Faina Blagodarova has 16 Russian poems translated into English for children three years and up and depicts a Russian child's everyday life.
For older children:
- Between Shades of Gray (#ad) by Ruta Sepetys: a young adult story about Soviet prison camps. There is a helpful study guide for the book.
- The Night Journey (#ad) by Kathryn Lasky: a story of the life of a Jewish girl in turn-of-the-century Russia.
- The Wild Children (#ad) by Felice Holman: Left behind when his family is arrested by soldiers following the Bolshevik Revolution, twelve-year-old Alex falls in with a gang of other homeless children, but never loses his hope for a better life.
- Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess (#ad) by  Carolyn Meyer: A novel in diary form. The youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes her privileged life before World War I and the tragic events that followed.
- Angel on the Square (#ad) by Gloria Whelan:  In 1913 Russia, twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home to join her mother, a lady in waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and undreamed-of changes to her life.