The Victorians

Someone was asking me about ideas for incorporating art into a history unit on the Victorians. In a way there are far too many things that could be done but, after giving it some thought, I thought that doing something on the Arts and Crafts Movement, and William Morris in particular, would be suitable.

There is a good web resource on the movement here, which provides short info-bytes on the main personalities involved as well as links to galleries, museums and collections that house some of their work. William Morris used a lot of natural forms in his designs so he is an ideal subject for spring and summer. If you want to find out more about him and see some examples of his work then why not take a look at the website of the William Morris Society, which can be found here. If you want to see an idea of how to use his work to inspire art projects then there is a good display available on the website of St Nicholas Church of England Community Primary School in Warwickshire, which you can get to by clicking this. Why not cut designs into polystyrene tiles and then use them as printing blocks to create your own wallpaper designs?

You can get more help on using William Morris in teaching from the Education Department of the William Morris Gallery here, including an Inspired by Nature resource pack, which is free to download and suitable for key stage 2 pupils.

Otherwise, to find out more about Victorian art there is an excellent links page here. This site (the Victorian Web) is, in part, funded by the National university of Singapore and there are links on most areas of artistic endeavour: design, architecture, photography, sculpture and fashion. Personally, among my favourites, are the cartoons from Punch on subjects ranging from politics to women and children. It is well worth browsing for both history and art ideas.

How to videos

For those of us who need a little help with our art techniques there is an American site I've discovered called Expert Village, which has a whole section dedicated to art here. There are videos on a very diverse range of topics from art and craft projects suitable for Foundation classes, through basic how to draw sessions to more sophisticated painting and sculpting videos. Its well worth browsing through this website and none of the videos I've looked at have been very long. Best of all, its completely free!

I've also found the videos on You Tube (though its probably better to get them from Expert Village themselves). Here's Debbie showing you how to make thumbprint art:

Drawing Lessons

For the less confident drawers among us there are a lot of useful drawing lessons on the Drawspace website. All of them have been created by Barbara Hoddinott and Drawspace instructors and then divided up into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels. They have also been well-indexed to help you find help on whatever you need. It is free to register to view the lessons on line (though you have to pay to be able to download and print them off).

One of my favourites is the lesson on how to draw a dog's nose - surreal until seen in context of the whole dog!

You can now get to Drawspace in links.

The Big Draw

I've added another useful link - this time to the Big Draw over at the Campaign for Drawing website. Or you can just click here.

October 2008 will see the ninth running of the Big Draw and over 1000 venues across the country will be taking part. According to the booklet I received, schools are certainly eligible to take part and if you register yours with them you will get a Best Practice CD full of advice , which will tell you everything you need to know about running an event. You can also download resources in pdf format from the website, which will give you, among other things, ideas for drawing activities.

Big Draw Day itself is on 11th October 2008 but you may prefer to do some drawing before then and just hold an exhibition on the day itself.

Circle Circus

Let's go cross-curricular again by mixing some art, some mathematics and some French. Why not challenge your children to see what pictures they can make using a single shape repeated over and over again in different sizes. To inspire them, just show them the following French song and animation I found on YouTube entitled "Circle Circus". Or, just watch it yourself for fun. Altogether now: "Shebam! Pow! Plop! Whizz!".

Create Your Own Masterpiece

Another goody obtained during my recent visit to the Royal Academy is the book Color Your Own Modern Art Masterpieces by Muncie Hendler. Published by Dover Publications Inc. in 1996, it's a useful resource book for introducing children to colour in modern art, with both black and white images that can be coloured and already-coloured images for reference. Some of the paintings, such as those by Willi Baumeister (1889-1955) and Auguste Herbin (1882-1960), would also be excellent for discussions on shapes (and hence could be linked to numeracy sessions).

Remember, it's not colouring in - it's creating your own masterpiece!

To see an example of why Herbin's works are so useful for any consideration of shape, take a look at his Nude of 1960 in Tate Modern, which you can find here.

"I can't draw!"

One of the problems I have encountered in trying to teach art in primary schools is in having to overcome an attitude of "I can't draw!". On a recent visit to the Royal Academy in London I came across a delightful storybook that addresses this very problem. First published by Walker books Ltd in 2003, award-winning children's author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds's "The Dot" is the delightful story of how Vashti starts with this exact attitude but goes on to exhibit at the school art show. What makes the difference for Vashti is the value her teacher places on her 'dot'. This book is really a great example of how to inspire creativity in others.

If you are experiencing just this kind of resistance to art-making in the classroom, why not start an art lesson with a reading of this book and then challenge the children to make their own marks in art!

By the way, not only is this an inspirational book (both for pupils and teachers) but the author's own website is something of an inspiration itself. Check it out here and let your own creativity loose.