Aim

The aim of the Visual Arts Years 7–10 Syllabus is to enable students to:

• develop and enjoy practical and conceptual autonomy in their abilities to represent ideas in the visual arts • understand and value the different beliefs that affect meaning and significance.

Overview

Description: Let’s Look at Landscape In this unit students investigate the natural environment as a source of ideas and imagery. Content is explored through the structural frame, the function of and relationship between the artist, artwork, world and audience and a range of painting conventions, strategies and procedures. Painting and drawing are primarily used as forms to develop meaning and communicate students’ ideas about the natural environment in which they live. They explore a range of painting procedures and techniques to develop a language of signs and symbols with which to represent their understanding.

In critical and historical studies students investigate how a range of artists have responded to the natural landscape through their artmaking practice. They examine the ways in which different relationships between the agencies of artist, artwork, world and audience are represented in artworks and how these are evident in ones artistic practice.

Objectives

Knowledge, understanding and skills

Students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills:

• to make artworks informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames • to critically and historically interpret art informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames.

Outcomes

A student:

Artmaking

4.1 uses a range of strategies to explore different artmaking conventions and procedures to make artworks

4.2 explores the function of and relationships between the artist – artwork – world – audience

4.3 makes artworks that involve some understanding of the frames

4.4 recognises and uses aspects of the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts

4.5 investigates ways to develop meaning in their artworks

4.6 selects different materials and techniques to make artworks.

Critical and Historical Studies

4.7 explores aspects of practice in critical and historical interpretations of art

4.8 explores the function of and relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience

4.9 begins to acknowledge that art can be interpreted from different points of view

4.10 recognises that art criticism and art history construct meanings.

Values and attitudes:

Students will value and appreciate:

• their engagement in the practice of the visual arts and understand how the visual arts, as a field of practice and understanding, is subject to different interpretations.

SPECIFIC CONTENT FOCUS

Students learn about: Rego X Students learn to: Rego X

Artmaking – Practice

• the field of visual arts and design as comprising conventions, activities, traditions and customs shaped by different values and beliefs

• the pleasure and enjoyment in making artworks • artists working individually, in groups and in

collaboration with others

• investigate the field of visual arts and design and approximate some conventions, activities, traditions and customs of the field to make art

• reflect on and interpret actions and choices, and document these in their diaries

• make informed personal choices to shape meaning

Artmaking – Conceptual Framework

• the function of the artist to make artworks – images or objects

• the material, physical and virtual form of artworks intentionally

• artworks produced for exhibition and display • the world as the source of ideas and concepts to make

art • how artists invent, adapt and develop strategies and • procedures to investigate the world to make artworks • artworks that relate to their own background and

experience • how artists develop their intentions

• make images and objects (artworks) that approximate an approach to artistic practice

• make artworks using a range of 2D, including drawing, 3D and/or 4D forms, materials and techniques and various investigations of the world

• identify the intention, audience and context for an exhibition and display of artworks

• use their diaries to research and investigate the world, for example: memory, fantasy, people, places and spaces, other living things, objects, culture, social and national identity, relationships, gender, politics, religion, celebrations, events, the environment, theories, issues about art

• adapt and develop strategies and procedures to investigate the world to make artworks

• record investigations and information gathering in

their diary

• develop artistic intentions arising from relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience

Artmaking – Frames

• the nature of at least three of the four frames and how they may be employed to express particular intentions or points of view

• belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the subjective frame

• belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the cultural frame

• belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the structural frame

• belief, value and meaning in artmaking in the postmodern frame

• recognise that making artworks involves their own interpretive activity, employing different points of view

• use their imaginations, intuitions, sensory and deeply felt experiences and views of beauty in the development of ideas in the making of art

• use their cultural and community identities and social perspectives of interest to them in the development of ideas and interests to represent the world in the making of art

• investigate and employ a range of conventions including codes, symbols and signs and consider how communication is embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks and offer a way to develop representations of ideas and interests in the world in the making of art

• modify, interpret or appropriate images from a variety of sources in the development of representations of ideas and interests in the world in the making of art and seek to question concepts about art as precious, unique and singular

Critical and historical Studies – Practice

• how artworks may be differently interpreted by artists, writers, critics, historians and other audiences

• how practice in the visual arts in different times and places is conditioned by a range of interests

• artistic practices, conventions and the networks of procedures that inform the approaches to artmaking

• identify and describe the purpose, audience and context for viewing artworks

• investigate a range of practices in the visual arts in different times and places

• discuss, consider and write about different aspects of practice

• explore and seek to explain the artistic practices of

of different artists or group of artists

selected artists/groups of artists identifying conventions and procedures

• use a range of reading strategies to evaluate critical interpretations of art

• investigate the works of selected artists as an aspect of their artmaking practice

Critical and historical Studies – Conceptual Framework

• various artists, with a focus on what they do, where they work, how and why they work and how they develop their intentions

• how the world can be interpreted in art and the ways in which ideas are represented

• different kinds of artworks in 2D, 3D and 4D forms including their symbolic, representational, physical and material properties

• Australian and international artists, designers, architects from different times and places with a focus on those with an iconic status and others who are relevant to the cultural and personal interests of students. Consideration should be given to:

1. contemporary artists and modern artists 2. artists from different times and cultures 3. Aboriginal and Indigenous artists 4. female and male artists 5. those who use conventional and/or more

contemporary technologies

• different audiences for artworks including art critics, art historians, members of the public, teachers, parents, students, other artists

• investigate the role and work of selected artists including groups of artists in different times and places

• discover how artists develop their intentions relative to their artworks, the audience and the world and recognise some of the constraints they work within

• recognise how different kinds of artists work individually and collaboratively

• recognise how artists interpret the world in the making of artworks and how they seek to represent these concepts through a range of styles and approaches

• investigate the expressive and stylistic possibilities of different media and techniques used by artists and recognise how these aspects contribute to the kinds of artworks they make

• adopt the role of an audience member when viewing art in various locations (eg in school, gallery visits and web exhibitions)

Critical and Historical Studies - Frames

• the nature of at least three of the four frames as • apply different points of view as represented by the

alternative frameworks of belief, value and meaning in visual arts

• belief, value and meaning about artworks from the subjective frame

• belief, value and meaning about artworks from the cultural frame

• belief, value and meaning about artwork from the structural frame

• belief, value and meaning about artworks from the postmodern frame

frames to interpretations and explanations of selected artworks

• identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use their imaginations, intuitions, sensory and deeply felt experiences, and views of beauty in making and responding to art

• identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences use cultural and community identities and social perspectives in making and responding to art

• identify and seek to explain how artists and audiences can read artworks as images or texts by understanding conventions including codes, symbols and signs and how these are embedded in the material and conceptual organisation of artworks

• identify how artworks may be explained and interpreted as intertextual, including those that make use of time-based and digital technologies, and pose a challenge to more conventional and established conceptions of art as precious, unique and singular

Outcome

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Resources

Registration

4.2

4.8

History/Criticism/Making: Assignment : Conceptual Framework

• Part A: Students select one of the following Australian artists; John Williams, Margaret Preston or Frederick McCubbin and are guided through an investigation of the conceptual framework, focusing on interactions between agencies of artist, artwork and world.

• They use these questions to analyse an artwork in which the artist has subjectively or

structurally responded to the natural environment and thus represented experiences, ideas or perceptions about the world.

• Part B: Create a series of rubbings (at least 3) from natural textures. For example dirt, bark, plants each to be labelled.

• Collect at least one sample of each of the following a large piece of bark, a leaf and a nut or an interesting flower.

• Part C: Select one of the collected items to draw. Complete a detailed drawing of the selected item. The drawing may be magnified and should cover most of an A4 piece of paper. It should include tones and textures.

*(Student Sample. Worksheet)

4.2

4.4

Making: In class excursion: Conceptual Framework

• Students participate in an in-class excursion to the local park to explore the natural environment. This will provide them with imagery for later work as they observe record and interact with an aspect of the world.

• Students investigate the landscape and complete two drawings of a selected plant or tree exploring the surface qualities and viewpoints:

a. A contour drawing b. A detailed drawing including tones and textures

*(Student Sample)

4.7

H/C: William Boissevain: Structural Frame: Artmaking practice

• Teacher introduces students to the work of William Boissevain in terms of his practice as a

• Prints:

Sunday Morning,

landscape artist. Information about and images of the works Sunday Morning, Glen Forrest, 1986 and Fire on the Crest, 1987 are presented to the students who record key points about the artist, his practice and his response to landscape.

• • Students explore the way in which Boissevain uses watercolour to show the changing colours

of the Australian landscape in its seasonal cycles.

Glen Forest, 1986

Fire on the Crest, 1987

• Artists information reference sheets

4.1

M: Watercolour painting: Artmaking Practice

• Explore the properties of watercolour paint with reference to Boissevain’s work. For example the way it reacts to different amounts of water, the way colours fuse together, the effects of dry and wet brushes. Teacher demonstrates watercolour wash for background.

• Students develop their own watercolour paintings that will be further developed by pen and ink drawing. Images will be derived from detailed drawings completed on excursion.

• Students employ techniques to achieve similar results as Boissevain. Firstly, water will be brushed over the surface of the paper. Watercolour paint will then be applied with a wide brush to produces the central lines of the drawing. Paint is intended to disperse upon contact with the wet surface created a blurred colour background.

*(Student samples)

• Watercolours

• Large brushes • Paper • Student drawings

from park. • Example

4.7

4.10

H/C: Frank Hodgkinson: Structural frame Artmaking Practice

Describing line: Structural frame

• Students participate in a short drawing exercise that encourages them to use descriptive

• Photocopies of images for students:

Zoe Hodgkinson,

verbal language to describe imagery, broadening their vocabulary for critically discussing art.

• Working in pairs, students will sit opposite their partner. Student A will receive a photocopied image of Frank Hodkinsons, Zoe Hodgkinson, 1981, and is required to describe the image to student 2 who will reproduce what they suspect the image to look like in their VAPD. After 10 minutes students can compare their drawings with the original. Student 2 will then receive a photocopy of Hodgkinson’s Colin Jack-Hinton, 1981, and student 1 will have a turn at drawing the image being descried.

• Teacher leads class in a discussion about the rich language of line and the way it can be used to describe surfaces, create interest, reflect emotion, give direction and provide information about objects and personalities.

• Students refer to worksheet on line and discuss the types of words they used to describe the lines in both images.

H/C: Artists practice

• Teacher introduces students to the work of Frank Hodgkinson by focusing on his lineal work. • Students consider the way Hodgkinson created his drawings, his use of line through pen and

ink and his intentions for the details of landscape to be highlighted through this media. In groups of 4-5 students are provided with a series of prints to discuss.

*(Student Samples. Worksheet)

1981

Colin Jack-Hinton, 1981

• Worksheet on line.

• Examples of Frank Hodgkinson’s line drawings (photocopies for group discussions)

4.1

4.3

M: Line drawing: Artmaking Practice

• Teacher demonstrates different techniques to create variations in line using felt tip pen. Students familiarise themselves with the aesthetic potential of various conventions of mark making. This could include cross-hatching, scribble effect, repeated line, width variation and different textural effects.

• Students refer to detailed drawings completed at the park and use felt tip pens to create texture of their image through lines onto their watercolour backgrounds.

• Evaluate painting by comparing and contrasting to the work of William Boissevain and Frank Hodgkinson.

• Felt tip pens.

• Paper • Watercolour

paintings • Student drawings

from park

*(Students samples)

4.8

4.10

H/C: Elwyn Lynn: Artist Practice: Conceptual Framework

• Students examine the work of Elwyn Lynn and as a class discuss the style of the work in terms of landscape painting. Compare Lynn’s artwork to that of William Boissevain and consider the differences in their response to landscape.

• Students explore the conventions of textural painting by examining the material practice of Lynn and explaining the relationships between the artist, the artwork, the audience and the world. They will complete worksheet that investigates the way Lynn approaches landscape painting, his artmaking practice and his interactions with the subject matter. Focus questions include:

• Examples of Elwyn Lynn’s paintings. • Prints:

o Ebb, 1964 o Fire and Drought near Old Junee, 1988 o Worksheet on Elwyn Lynn

• What media and methods does Lynn use to communicate meaning in his artworks? • How has he represented interests in a particular view of the world? • What meaning does he communicate to the audience and what does he want them to think

about?

4.1 4.6

M: Texture painting: Artmaking practice

• Detailed drawings from assignments are enlarged onto A3 paper. Objects from assignment are returned to students as references.

• Students copy their enlarged drawing onto boxboard and create a textured surface that emulates their selected object. Textured surfaces will be created from a range of materials including sand, gesso, birdseed, rice, flour, leaves and PVA glue.

• Acrylic paint used to draw design over textured surface. Students are to use a limited palette of earthy colours.

• Students record their choices and intentions in the Visual Arts Diary. • Evaluate painting considering interaction between artwork, audience and world. • Photocopy drawings from assignment onto A3 paper • Boxboard • Material to create texture: sand, gesso, PVA glue, rice, grad wrap, leaves, birdseed. • Acrylic paint

4.3

M: Stylised Poster Design: Structural Frame

• Students use photos of natural objects to create a stylised design.

Each student will receive a photo along with a pre-cut frame. They are to select a section of the photo to isolate and enlarge onto paper.

• Photographs of natural objects leaves, bushes etc

• Cut frames • Paper

4.8

4.10

H/C: Andy Warhol And Elizabeth Durack: Structural Frame

• Students examine the works Mirage, 1981 by Elizabeth Durack and Andy Warhol’s Daisy, 1982 (fuchsia and yellow) and (blue on blue) along with a selection of other paintings or prints that use contrasting colour as visual language.

• Teacher leads class discussion of the works in terms of the structural elements present

• Use of colour: Complimentary, Flat/ bold • Stylised design: elimination of detail, Simplified design, 2D etc. • Composition

Homework task

• Students to complete an investigation of the conventions of colour chemistry and colour as a symbolic language. They are required to provide definitions and/or examples of the following; Primary, secondary, tertiary colour, complementary and harmonious colour, monochromatic colour, tints and shades as well as the emotional associations of colour.

Images:

• Elizabeth Durack, Mirage, 1981

• Andy Warhol, Daisy, 1981, Cambels (green/red. Etc

• Homework Sheet

4.1

4.3

M: Poster design continued: Structural Frame

• Students employ the techniques of Warhol and Durack to simplify and stylising their drawings to create a simplified 2D design. These will be transferred to a high gloss poster paper.

• Each student selects a limited colour scheme of 3 colours (eg primary or secondary colours). • Teacher informs students of the qualities in gouache paint (flat bold colour) and its benefit

for poster design. • Poster designs are painted in gouache poster paint using 2 of the selected 3 colours. • Students annotate their design and document their choices and decisions in their Visual Arts

Process Diaries. The artistic intentions of students are refined through an emphasis on design, composition and colour as signs that communicate qualities associated with the natural environment. They may explore balance, harmonious colour or contrasting colour

• Designs are outlined with the third colour using oil pastels creating a similar effect to that present in Warhol's Daisy series.

• Evaluate work using the structural frame.

• Gloss paper • Paint • brushes

4.2

M: Exhibition

• All work evaluated • Bodies of work are exhibited, curated by the students to represent their practice, intentions,

influences and points of view about their surrounding natural landscape.

Evidence of learning

• Completed paintings demonstrate student’s knowledge and understanding of the processes of applying different types of paint to create a variety of surface effects.

• Class and group discussions demonstrate students’ understanding of the conceptual framework and interactions of the artist, world, artwork and audience, along with the frames and the artmaking practices of the range of artists studied.

• Visual arts process diary entries along with samples demonstrate awareness of compositional qualities and conventions of line, colour and texture.

• Worksheet responses indicate student’s levels of understanding about the structural frame

and aspects of the conceptual framework, knowledge of artistic practices and ability to interpret examples.

RESOURCES:

Texts:

• The Visual Arts Book: Anne Bamford Heinemann • Art inSight 2nd Edition: Lou Chamberlain, McGraw-Hill

Useful Websites and Links:

• www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/drama_710_syllabus.doc NSW Board of Studies • http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/aussieed/thearts.htm#art Useful links to visual art sites • http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/home Art Gallery of New South Wales • http://www.users.senet.com.au/~dsmith/austcontemplinks.htm Australian Contemporary Art Links • http://www.nga.gov.au/Home/index.cfm National Gallery of Australia • http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/ Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery • http://www.tate.org.uk/home/default.htm TATE Gallery • http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/resources/teaching/theartsresources.html Art teaching resources • http://www.artsoutwest.org.au/ Arts Outwest • http://www.nga.gov/education/teachres.htm National Gallery of Art USA: Teaching Resources Online Program • http://www.artresourcesinteaching.org A.R.T. Art Resources in Teaching