Romero Britto: Patterns of shape, line, color

Who: Romero Britto, Brazilian-American

What: paintings, sculptures, prints. Bright, flat color. Repetition of shapes, lines, colors = patterns. 

Where: Miami, Florida

When: now!

Why: He wants to make people feel happy. 

How: paints from photographs and imagination. has business sponsorship, celebrity endorsements. 

After finding this article while looking for Wayne Thiebaud inspired lessons, I discovered Romero Britto. 

I like this video of Britto being interviewed by Forbes. I found it on his website. It does mention that his first business partnership gig was with Absolut Vodka, but it's quick and my students didn't seem to notice or react. I like this video because he talks about using his own "language" in his imagery. Britto seemed like a good next artist to talk about after Cezanne and Wayne Thiebaud because he's so different. 

We looked at his work "Bimini" because it's an easy one to talk about pattern. Which flower do you think will come next? 

My students also loved looking at "Mona Cat."We tried to find matching and mismatching patterns, like  the pink and white stripes across from the pink and white polkadots. 

On the board I showed how to choose a subject, then break it up into different patterns.

I allowed students to make their own patterns using stencils, rulers, markers, pencils, and colored pencils. I wanted them to explore drawing different types. Because I was open, we had a lot of variation. Some just drew repeated shapes and colors in a line, which I was ok with, but most tried to have a subject that they broke up into sections like Britto. My goal was to have them try to fill the whole page with color. We are still working on that! 

Student pics to come!