Teach-Primary-Issue-19.2

• What made you choose certain colours for your artwork? • How does your artwork make you feel? • Would changing the colours affect this feeling? • Do you think you could represent a bird’s eye view of anything else in this way? 3 | RED AND YELLOW AND PINK... One way for pupils to create their own tulip fields is by using a collage technique. They can make abstract interpretations of the fields by simply using strips of brightly coloured paper and glue. They will each need a sheet of green paper or card (size can depend on the scale of the desired outcome) to use as the background for their piece. Oz. What can they see? Get them to describe the view to the person next to them, including the colours – the greens, the pinks, the yellows, the purples and the reds; the patterns and straight lines – the bright, vibrant stripes of colour. Tell pupils to forget about the tiny details – the petals, leaves and individual flowers – instead just focus on the bright, bold stripes they can see. They are going to transfer these floral imaginings of their mind’s eyes onto canvas in one of two ways. • Bring tulips into class for a series of observational art sessions. Cut A4 paper in half lengthways and task pupils with drawing representations of the whole flower from the tip of the bud to the base of the stem. The cut paper size and shape lends itself perfectly to the long shape of the tulip flower. Pupils can create a series of artworks using different media; try drawing in ink, oil pastels, pencil or paint. • Grab an iPad and get taking some bird’s eye photographs. Find some everyday objects and capture them from above for an interesting view of the ordinary. • Try drawing from different perspectives. This activity has been all about bird’s eye views – why not try getting down low and drawing from a worm’s eye view? EXTENDING THE LESSON This green represents the stems and leaves of the tulips. The strips of paper represent the rows of tulips in the fields. So, for this activity, pupils need a selection of papers in vibrant flower colours – reds, oranges, yellows or purples. They can either cut the strips with scissors (teachers can pre-cut these if necessary) or carefully rip them. The strips need to be glued down parallel to one another with a gap of green showing between each, until the background paper is covered from one side to the next. An alternative method is to use paint, paintbrushes and paper. To start, wash a piece of paper with green paint to create the background – a wash is created by adding water to paint, then covering the whole piece of paper with the mix. Leave to dry, then get ready to paint the stripes of colour. To add some interest, use brushes of different sizes to create rows of different thicknesses. As with the collage method, paint individual stripes of different colours in parallel with one another from one side of the paper to the next, leaving a little gap of green in between. Display the artwork together to create one large-scale field of colourful tulips ! Adele Darlington is an experienced teacher, art lead and primary art consultant. She is also the author of 100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Art (£15, Bloomsbury). “Invite pupils to imagine they are a bird, swooping around the classroom, looking down at its contents. What do things look like?” USEFUL QUESTIONS www.teachwire.net | 91