Introduction to

K-6 Visual Arts

Education
By
Deirdre Russell-Bowie
and Moira Gibson 1
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
Every child is an artist.
The problem is
how to remain an artist
once he or she
grows up.
(Picasso)

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 The benefits of including the
Visual Arts

• Personal expression
• Develops imagination & creativity
• A vital form of communication of
ideas & thoughts in a non-verbal way
• Develops problem solving skills
• Develops language
• Fosters self esteem
• Develops fine motor skills

Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

 Visual Arts
• Visual Arts Lessons
– Introduction
• Motivating
• Set rules and routines
• Use stimulus (picture,
music, artwork, poem,
story, etc)
– Demonstration
• If new skills are to be learned
• Make explanations clear
• Repeat instructions, question for
understanding

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Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Visual Arts Lessons
Development of skills, techniques &
creative artworks
• Allow children time to be creative
• Be available to comment, praise,
encourage, extend, keep children
on task
• Plan ahead for early finishers
– Reflection and sharing
• Talk with children about their artworks
• Teach and reinforce the language of art
• Check achievement of indicators from
lesson plan

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Practical tips for art lessons
– Collect resources NOW
– Check out school resources
– Check out libraries,
internet sites
– Keep materials clean, tidy,
labelled
– Develop routines
– Have children bring art smock
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts Syllabus

• Making – Forms and Matter

Forms (drawing, painting, S3D, printmaking, clay,
fibre, electronic media)
Matter (people, living things, objects, places &
spaces, events)

• Appreciating – their own work and

others

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Subject matter
– People
• Real
• Imagined
• Different cultures
• Different contexts
• Portraits
• Realistic/abstract/
cartoon

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Subject matter
– Emotions
• Art can be used to express
emotions
• Use emotions as a stimulus
for art
• Often easier to draw than
write about how you feel

Unknown Joy: Unknown joy is a

mystery but we keep trying to find
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it in the world around us. JB
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Subject matter
Other Living Things
• Animals
• Birds
• Fish
• Reptiles
• Plants I am the independent falcon:

• Trees…. lives
I am like the independent falcon who
by itself and doesn’t need anyone
to follow. I am strong and I never
give up. TD 10
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Subject matter
Objects
• Still life
• Fruit
• Flowers
• Vegetables
• Toys
• Cultural objects

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 Visual Arts

• Subject matter
Places and Spaces
• Landscapes
The Country: Australia is a very
• Cityscapes dry country, so I chose yellow and
orange to show this.JL
• Australia and overseas
• Remembered / pictures
• Real or fantasy
• Outer space
Sydney Harbour Bridge: 12
from observation (Charcoal)
Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie
 Visual Arts
• Subject matter
Events
• Celebrations
• Special occasions
• Festivals
• Cultural, historical,
religious
• Direct experience
• Reading / internet / New Year’s Eve
pictures
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Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Using the language of Art

• Elements of Art
– Line
• Give artwork shape
• Bring focus / emphasis
• Define or separate an object
– In the classroom
• Draw contours
• Life drawings
• Still life My life rules:
• Buildings, squiggle picturesThis artwork represents my life because
everything in it means something to me.
The big heart stands for kindness. The
4-coloured ball represents fun. The fish
represents love and hate. The road
signifies my love of cars. KH 14
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Elements of Art
– Tone
• Use of light and shade
• Tonal quality affected by use
of light and dark colours
– In the classroom
• Use spotlight to show how
one side can be light and the
other dark; draw or paint
this effect

Picasso-styled self-portrait uses tone to

express the artist’s emotions. 15
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Elements of Art
– Colour
• Primary colours
• Secondary colours
• Tertiary colours
– Brown, Grey
• Complementary colours
– Opposite
• Analogous colours
– Near

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Elements of Art
– Colour
• Cool Colours
• Warm colours
• Monochromatic colours
(Colour + black/white)
– In the classroom
• Create artworks exploring
the different categories
of colours
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Elements of Art
– Texture
• Smooth, bumpy
• Rough, prickly
• Silky, sharp
– In the classroom
• Create rubbings
• Photograph actual textures
• Create collages
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Elements of Art
– Shape
• Flat, 2D area defined by a boundary
• Geometric
• Irregular
• Use lines to form boundaries
• Can make 2D look 3D
– In the classroom
• Draw 3D objects on paper,
concentrate on outline and shape

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Elements of Art
– Form
• 3D shape
• The space that an object
takes up in its environment
• Looks different from
different angles
– In the classroom
• Create sculptures, carvings,
papier mache artworks

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Elements of Art
– Space
• Area between shapes and forms
• Perspective gives 2D depth and
reality
• Crowded, empty
• Positive (object) or negative (area
around object)
– In the classroom
• Draw landscapes with background,
middle and foreground
• Examine artworks for perspective
and create similar artworks
• Explore negative and positive space
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Elements of Art
– Pattern
• All around us
• Effective in art
• Symmetrical / Asymmetrical
• Geometric / Irregular
– In the classroom
• Create geometric and irregular
patterns
• Use printing techniques to create
patterns
• Explore the work of Escher;
create similar artworks

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

Elements of Art: Test yourself!

– L
– Line
– T
– Tone
– C
– Colour
– T
– S
-Texture
– F – Shape
– S - Form
– P – Space
– Pattern

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Forms
– 2D
• Drawing
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Marbling
• Photography

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 Drawing
Why teach children to draw?
Drawing is an extension of seeing-
children
acquire the abilities of :
• Perception
• Interpretation
• Imagination
• Communicating the way we see, think
and feel about our world

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 Different Types of Drawing

• Explore different ways of making marks

on the paper
• Drawing to recall an experience
• Imaginative drawings- futuristic event
• Drawing from memory or observation
• Drawings as illustrations
• Cartoon drawings
• Contour or continuous line drawings

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 Drawing Media
• Pencils (2B, 4B, 6B)
• Coloured pencils
• Crayons
• Oil pastels
• Charcoal
• Felt tipped pens
• Coloured inks

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 Imaginative Drawings

• These drawings can be imaginative,

fantastic, futuristic, mysterious and can
inspire students to draw in different ways
• For example- a mysterious picture at night
• Robots or space creatures
• A city of the future
• A happy picture or any other emotion

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 Drawings from Observation
• Drawings from close observations
encourages children to look and see very
carefully the properties and
characteristics of what they are drawing
-- a natural object
-- an animal brought into the classroom
-- an object such as a shoe
-- a still life such as flowers

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 Drawings from Different
Perspectives

• Look up at the clouds and imagine what

shapes you can see in these forms
• Look down at the earth & focus up close
• Look through a magnifying glass & draw
• Observe the textures & patterns of objects
• Look through keyhole & draw
• Look through a viewfinder & draw
• Look at artist’s drawing and paintings
• View things from an animal’s perspective

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 Different Drawing Papers
• Paper in a variety of sizes
• Cartridge paper
• Brown paper
• Newspaper
• Coloured paper
• Cardboard
• Silver, gold, black paper

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 2D Topics
These are some of the topics you may
consider for your CAPs presentation:
-- Political cartoons -- Poster art
-- Murals or banner-making -- Graffiti
-- Advertising -- Fashion in art
-- Portrait painting -- An Artist
-- Landscape Paint -- Egyptian art
-- Animals in art -- Asian art
*Free Choice of topic

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Forms
– 3D
• Sculpture
• Mask making
• Puppets
• Collage
• Paper making

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Forms
– 3D
• Ceramics
• Cards
• Textiles:
– Silk painting
– Batik
– Tie Dying
– Weaving
• Digital forms

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 art

By
Moira
Gibson
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Art Appreciation
 The aim of an art appreciation program
is to develop strategies for looking at
art and making sense of what they see
 An art appreciation program should
assist students to understand their own
art, as well as other artists

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 Different forms of Art Appreciation

• a child reviewing his/her own drawings

• two children comparing their paintings
• a discussion between a teacher and
child about his/her progress
• children researching about their
favourite artist in books, magazine,
videos, internet
• a visit to an art gallery
• an artist giving a talk to students
• a class discussion about some artworks
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
– Personal, reflective responses
– Analyzing artworks in terms of
elements, style, history
– Explore artist’s intentions
– Peer artworks
– Visit art galleries

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 Artmaps
Ask questions about what we see:-
 What is it?
 Who made it?
 What is it made of?
 How is it made?
 Where is it made?
 When was it made?
 Why was it made?
 What is it about?

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
What is it?

Ken Done:
Monet: Waterlilies Olympic Medallists’
(Impressionism, 19th C) Wildflowers
(Naive, 21st C) 40
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
Who created it?

Da Vinci: Mona Lisa

(Renaissance, 16th C)

Elioth Gruner:
Spring Frost
Rembrandt:
(Realism, 19th C)
The Night Watch 41

(Baroque, 17/18th C)
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
Art Appreciation
What is it called?

Van Gogh: The Blue Boy:

Starry Night Gainsborough
(Post-Impressionism, 19th C) (Rococo, 18th C)
Jackson Pollock:
Composition
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(Abstract
Expressionism, 20th C)
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Art Appreciation – Why was it
created?
Ken Done:
Olympic Games
(Naive, 21st C)

Picasso:
Guernica
(Cubism, 20th
C)
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
What media and Margaret Preston:
WA banksia
techniques were (Coloured woodcut)
used?

Rodin:
The Thinker
(Bronze sculpture) 44
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation Ingres:

Joan of Arc
In what historical, (Neo-classicism,
18th Century)
cultural and
geographical
context was it
created?
Kandinsky: Goya:
St George The Parasol
(Expressionism: (Romanticism,
Early 20th Century) 45
Mid-19th Century)
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
Edvard Munch:
– What message The Scream
and/or emotions
does it convey?

Edvard Munch:
Young Woman on the
Shore
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
– What might have
happened
before/after
what is portrayed
in the artwork?

Perdreau:
Hayride
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• Art Appreciation
Line – What elements
Tone of visual arts
Colour were used to
Texture convey the
Shape message?
Form
Space
Pattern Van Gogh:
Sunflowers
Picasso:
Flowers
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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
– How does it
compare with
other artworks
you have
explored?

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts

• Art Appreciation
What utilitarian
use
does it have, if
any?

Annie Griffiths Belt:

Signatures of 250,000
Australians join artist Fiona
McDonald in supporting
Aboriginal Claims 50
 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts Sing!

Dance!
Paint!
• Art Appreciation
Take photos!
– What is your
Write!
personal response
Discuss!
to the artwork?
Act out!

Salvador Dali:
The persistence of memory
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 Art Appreciation Program
This program should include a variety of
images and objects in the visual arts:
 Painting Fashion, jewellery
 Drawing Sculpture
 Printmaking Wood
 Ceramics Photography
 Fabrics/textilesComic books, cartoons
 Murals Graphic design

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 Illustrations and photos in
children’s books
- use these images for art appreciation
- drawings, photos, paintings, collage, pop-up book
- (Jeannie Baker, video of illustrators, pop-up book and
cards)
By discussing these with
children allows for interpretation
of images & generates lots of
ideas for their own art-making
A
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 Comparisons of Artworks
Looking for similarities &
differences between two or more
artworks seems to challenge our
perceptions
- Flowers (Van Gogh, M. Preston,
Ken Done)
- Portraits (Modigliani, Dobell)
- Bedroom scene (Van Gogh, Grace
Cossington-Smith)
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 Dinner Party Activity
Show a series of portraits. Children
step into these characters and
imagine they are at a dinner party.
Chat and mix around until you can
find all the same characters as you
(e.g . at the end of the party you should have
groups of Mona Lisas, Marilyn Monroes, Dame
Mary Gilmores, Van Goghs)

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 Living Sculptures
In pairs, the children take turns
at sculpting each other to form the
exact pose & facial features in the
artwork.
In groups, a child (the sculptor)
moulds a number of children into the
figures in a painting.

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 Detectives

In pairs, talk to the other friend about a

great piece of art you have just bought.
A: What is your painting called?
B: It’s called …
A: Who painted it?
B: It’s by ….
A: What colours are in it?
B: It has mainly orange and blue (complimentary
colours)

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Be a Detective
Select an artwork. Make a list of clues to
help us find this artwork if it were hidden
among other artworks.

This activity asks students to describe an artwork

to distinguish it from other works - develops
language & observation

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 Police Descriptions
• An artwork has been stolen from
the room and you have to give a
description of it to the police to
find the work.
• The more detail you give, the
easier will be the police’s job

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 The Art Auction
Imagine you are an auctioneer selling
an artwork e.g,” Today we are have a
wonderful Australian painting. Painted at
the turn of the century, it is a fine
example of the work of… Note the use
of shadow and fleeting light. A rare
chance to own a piece of
Australiana. Imagine this fine
landscape on your
lounge wall.

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 Improve Your Art Appreciation
Program

• Arrange for an artist to spend some time working

in your school (find out about Artists in schools
Program and Architects in Schools Program)
• Keep a look out for references to art in the
media for use in your art program
• Become a member of the Art Gallery of New
South Wales or the Campbelltown Art Gallery
• Use art appreciation activities to fill in the small
gaps, before recess, lunch and the end of the
day, in addition to your regular art appreciation
activities

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Writing about an Event
• What happened before the event?
or
• What happened after the event?

This activity asks the children to

consider the precise moment that the
artwork represents

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 My Favourite Artwork
A writing or speaking activity
 Select an artwork you would like
to have on your bedroon wall.
 Select an artwork for your parents
or friends. Why do you think they
would like this?

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 Introduction to Visual Arts Education: Deirdre Russell-Bowie

Visual Arts
• With this WEALTH of different
visual arts learning experiences at
your fingertips……
how could you EVER consider that
colouring in a stencil would be a
valid Visual Arts activity????

STENCILS
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 Factors Hindering
Creativity
These things limit creative expression

 stencils
 templates
 an adult drawing for a child instead of
encouraging the child’s own creative
efforts
 an adult constantly asking, “What is it?”

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 Developmental Stages

• Disordered Scribbling /
Manipulative
• Controlled Scribbling
• Named Scribble/ Symbolic/ Shape
Stage
• Recognizable / Pictorial Stage

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Scribble or Manipulative Stage
(2 - 4 years)

• The child enjoys the muscular sensation

of scribbling or watching marks appear
• The child is not trying to draw, model
or build objects, the experience is
purely kinesthetic (movement)

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 Controlled Scribbling

• Lines stop and start at different points

• Begins to make circular movements on

the page.
• Experiments with dots and lines

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 Manipulative Stage
(2 - 4 years)
• Children all start by experimenting
with materials
• Scribble drawings
• Squeeze and pound clay
• Use one colour of paint and makes a
patch
• Simple 2 piece construction
• Experiment with collage

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 Symbolic Stage
(4 - 7 years)

The child
• Begins to make lines & shapes
• Begins to name some of these shapes
• Interest in pattern making begins
• Circle evolves to represent a head
• First recognisable figures appear
• Beginning of naming
• Usually not recognisable to adult

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 Symbolic Stage
(4 - 7 years)

• One shape may represent more than one thing

• Begins to attempt more elaborate shapes
• Emergence of form and pattern
• Concern with shape and balance
• Does not know beforehand what she is going to
draw
• Name may change several times during drawing
• Emergence of mandala and sun

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 Representational Stage
(7-10 years)

• Beginning of recognizable figures

(figures, houses, animals, vehicles, plants)
• More complicated patterns
• Figures become more detailed
• Outward facing presentation
• People floating in space - no horizontal ground line
• Decorative element, development of symmetry
• Announces beforehand what it will be

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Later Representational Stage

• Use of ground line and skyline

• Appearance of profile
• Objects are shown in
relationship to each other

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 Visual Arts Education

For further information,

see Chapters 6 and 9 in
MMADD: About the Arts:
An introduction to
Primary Arts Education
by Deirdre Russell-Bowie,
published by Pearson
Education Australia

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