Stage 1 – Creative & Practical Arts

Stage 1 – Creative & Practical Arts Visual Arts – The Vase of Flowers Subject Matter: Objects, other living things Forms: Drawing, Painting, Collage Unit Duration: 4–6 lessons

Foundation Statement

Students make artworks representing both real and imagined situations exploring a range of techniques and media. They discuss qualities of artworks such as subject matter and technique, recognising that artists create artworks for different audiences.

Students sing, play and move to music, demonstrating an awareness of their own capability in using voice and other sound sources. They organise sounds into simple structures and begin representing creative ideas symbolically. Students listen to, and identify, simple features of music and make judgements about musical effectiveness and preference.

Students explore and convey stories, events and feelings through roles and they work collaboratively to communicate and express feelings about the action of the drama. They experience and respond to a range of drama forms and elements by making, performing and appreciating drama.

Students perform dances with some understanding of body movement and expression, exploring a range of movements to make choices in order to convey ideas feelings and moods. They describe the ideas, feelings and moods conveyed by dances.

Overview Students investigate the unique qualities and details of a vase of flowers as a still life arrangement in this unit as the initial investigations for their artmaking in drawing, printmaking and collage. By considering this arrangement students develop understandings of the importance of balance, harmony and contrast in shapes and colours and how these concepts can be used in the making of artworks. The unit also offers opportunities for students to look at, in some detail, artworks made by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Margaret Preston who interpreted similar kinds of subject matter in their artworks. Outcomes and Indicators Making VAS1.1 Makes artworks in a particular way about experiences of real and imaginary things • investigates details of objects and other living things e.g. vases and flowers • talks about significant features and relationships of objects, referring to such things as shapes, materials, proportion and colour in their artwork.

VAS1.2 Uses the forms to make artworks according to varying requirements • experiments with different drawing media including crayons, paint, dyes, rollers, to create particular effects in an attempt to capture likenesses of things • explores various printmaking techniques e.g. paper stencil techniques in silk screen printing to create one-offs and multiples • emphasises particular features suited to the purpose of artmaking e.g. balance, harmony and contrast in shapes and colours.

Appreciating VAS1.3 Realises what artists do, who they are and what they make • talks about artworks made by particular artists and the techniques these artists use, eg the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Margaret Preston.

VAS1.4 Begins to interpret the meaning of artworks, acknowledging the roles of artist and audience • recognises that artists explore the world in particular ways when they approach their artmaking and in the artworks they make. Content: Students in Stage 1 will: Learn to: Learn about:

• think about how they can work in • how different aspects of the world are similar ways to artists in their making of represented in pictures and other kinds of artworks artworks • the properties of a wider range of • explore different kinds of subject media, tools and techniques and how matter and concepts in their making of artists, including themselves, can use artworks these to create various effects • make different kinds of artworks including paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, digital artworks and videos • extend their skills in using a variety of media, techniques and tools to create effects that link to things in the world • take into account various factors when talking about art (eg details within an artwork, what the work is about and what the artist has done)

Sequence of Learning Experiences Date • Have students carefully look at and discuss artworks such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and the Still Life by Margaret Preston. Include any

Aboriginal artists also • Guide students in considering: – ways in which the artist made the artwork interesting – ways in which the artist varied the lengths and shapes of flower stems – how the artist used particular media – the kind of background each artist used, and the effect of the background on the vase of flowers – the way the artist added contrast, yet created a harmonious composition.* • Have students view a variety of vases and discuss their shapes. Talk about their symmetry or asymmetry, the flatness of the top and the bottom of each vase, the dimensions of the vases, their transparency and/or opacity, their colours, the material from which they are made, and any patterns that decorate the vases. Sequence of Learning Experiences Date • Have students make a paper stencil for a silk-screen print. They should draw their favourite vase using simple shapes onto a piece of art paper and have them cut the vase shape out. Students may want to make more than one stencil, and then select the one which they find the most pleasing and which suggests the qualities of their favourite vase. • Use a silk-screen that has been masked to ensure a clean border. Have students place their cut-out shapes on top of the paper on which they will print and consider where the vase shape will look the most effective. • The vase shapes are printed onto sheets of art paper. Several prints may be made, the most successful used for further work.

• Have students collect a variety of leaves with interesting veins. They cover the backs of the leaves with thick acrylic paint of a single colour using a foam brush and a dabbing technique. Several prints are made from the same leaf before adding more paint. Direct students to practise printing the leaves directly onto sheets of paper by covering the upturned and inked leaf with paper and rubbing it with their hand. • Have individual students contribute to a class collection of flowers. Students closely observe the variety of flowers. They note their colours, shapes and textures, their smell, their petals, stamens, pistils etc. • Have students draw the flowers focusing on the details of individual flowers, experimenting with oil pastels, blending the colours with their fingers and applying one colour on top of another. • Have students look again at the flowers to closely examine their stems, discussing their colours, thicknesses and shapes. Have them draw the stems with long vertical lines using coloured crayons and to cover a sheet of art paper. • Have students observe a still life arrangement of a vase and flowers. They discuss its composition and examine the relationships between parts, eg between flowers, leaves, stems and vase. They identify interesting aspects, eg contrasts between shapes, colours, textures and lines. Students use oil pastels (eg black, white with one other colour) to make an outline drawing of this arrangement over their silkscreen print of the vase. Sequence of Learning Experiences Date • Have students return to their stem drawings and have them cut out an odd number of stems from these drawings. After discussing some of the features of still life artworks, such as harmony, unity, contrast, variation of levels of the flowers, and focus of interest, the flower stems are glued down on the previous drawing/print. • Have students select their favourite flower drawings from earlier in the unit and make their own flowers using tissue, corrugated cardboard, crepe paper, etc, to be attached to the drawing/print. Students to consider the whole composition of the artwork as they decide how to make the flowers and where they can be placed on their artwork. • Have students consider how their printed leaves from earlier in the unit could be glued onto the artwork to add further areas of interest. Students to investigate different arrangements before deciding on the position of their leaves. • Students evaluate their own artworks.* They reflect on their use of media within the composition. • Display and discuss artworks.

Resources • Prints/postcards of artworks which have floral still life as subject matter eg Margaret Preston’s Still Life, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, S & S Wholesales Art Pack Still Life or other prints/postcards available at galleries across the state • still life arrangement for classroom; vases of various shapes and sizes • leaves; paint; brushes; art paper; flowers; oil pastels; vegetable dyes; silk screens; squeegees; printing ink; scissors; masking tape; tissue paper; adhesive coloured dots; shiny squares; crepe paper; corrugated cardboard; PVA glue.

Links with other Art Forms Links with other Key Learning Areas SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LT S1.3 Living Things INV S1.7 Investigating DM S1.8 Designing and Making UT S1.9 Using Technology Undertake a study of a particular plant, graph its growth and write a procedural recount explaining the process of planting to full bloom Investigate particular flowers and write an information report Design and make a vase of flowers using a range of materials and/or computer- based technology. ENGLISH RS1.5 Reading and Viewing WS1.9 Producing Texts Locate a range of texts, which focus on plants and identify and record in a word bank the adjectives used to describe their colours, shapes, textures, parts and other features. Write an information report about a particular flower. HSIE CCS1.1 Significant Events and People Research information about Australian artists, particularly those that work with plants. Research the floral emblems of Australian states and territories.

Assessment Evaluation