Activity Introduction
Quick summary: Have you ever wondered why sitting under that tree, on the beach or playing with your friends outside suddenly makes you feel relaxed, grounded and at ease? Maybe it is the smell of flowers or fresh air that allows us to declutter and recentre? Or maybe it is the perfect place where we can loosen up and capture beauty as it is happening.
In this art lesson, students will explore a new place and discover how nature can foster creativity and inspire students to give birth to new ways of seeing and doing. Throughout the lesson, the student will understand that travelling to a new place does not necessarily mean a foreign country. Students might consider how they could potentially travel to a new park, town, a tree they have never sat under before, on a hill, next to a river — any environment that inspires them to be creative.
While painting in nature, students are encouraged to let go of perfectionism and follow their own creative flow as they develop drawings and paintings to describe what they are seeing. However, just as nature does, they will encounter some obstacles that may change the course of their brush stroke.
Learning intentions:
- Students understand why nature and the environment is an important element to art and creativity
- Students will develop an understanding of creative intuition and how to follow their natural instincts
- Students will understand how to enhance their intentions through exploration of how artists use materials, techniques and processes.
21st-century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Years 5 & 6 Visual Arts:
- Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks (ACAVAM115)
Year 7 & 8 Visual Arts:
- Develop ways to enhance their intentions as artists through exploration of how artists use materials, techniques, technologies and processes (ACAVAM119)
Practise techniques and processes to enhance the representation of ideas in their art-making (ACAVAM121)
Syllabus outcomes Stage 3: VAS3.1, VAS3.2, VAS3.3, VAS3.4
Syllabus outcomes Stage 4: 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6
General capabilities: Literacy, Personal and Social Capabilities, Critical and Creative Thinking
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
Relevant parts of Year 5 & 6 achievement standards:
By the end of Year 6, students explain how ideas are represented in artworks they make and view. They describe the influences of artworks and practices from different cultures, times and places on their art-making.
Students use visual conventions and visual arts practices to express a personal view of their artworks. They demonstrate different techniques and processes in planning and making artworks. They describe how the display of artworks enhances meaning for an audience.
Relevant parts of Year 7 & 8 achievement standards:
By the end of Year 8, students identify and analyse how other artists use visual conventions and viewpoints to communicate ideas and apply this knowledge in their art-making. They explain how an artwork is displayed to enhance its meaning. They evaluate how they and others are influenced by artworks from different cultures, times and places.
Students plan their art-making in response to the exploration of techniques and processes used in their own and others’ artworks. They demonstrate use of visual conventions, techniques and processes to communicate meaning in their artworks.
Topic: Artist in residence
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work Lord Howe Island – Artist in residence.
Time required: 85 mins – excluding washing up and placing art materials away
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – facilitate class discussion and prompt students to consider why mother nature and human nature play a vital role in the process of making art.
Resources required:
- A device capable of presenting a video to the class
- Art portfolio or large sheets of paper suitable for ink drawings or watercolour
- Paint and pencil for drawing and painting exercise
- Paintbrush
- Portfolio or booklet dedicated to the Joshua Yeldham art lessons
- Sticky tape or rope so that students can attach their stick (extension) to their paintbrush
- Student resource booklet: Joshua Yeldham Student Resource.
After each lesson, students should paste, write, draw or annotate their art portfolio.
Portfolios have several important purposes, not only do they serve as a historical checklist of a student’s accomplishments, but they allow students to unpack their creativity and make connections between the process, newly acquired knowledge and experimentation
Keywords: art, artist in residency, ink, watercolour, nature, control, perfectionism, creativity, creative, education, freedom, landscape.
Teacher Preparation