Visual Arts: The Vase of Flowers
Description of activity
Students create an artwork depicting a vase of flowers, using a combination of drawing, painting and collage techniques.
- Teacher sets up a still life in the classroom and students draw or paint this, focusing on the colours, shapes and textures of the flowers, vase and background.
- Students make flowers and leaves to add to their painting/drawing. They use a range of materials such as corrugated cardboard, tissue paper, crepe paper, fabric and collage.
- Students consider the composition and placement of the flowers and leaves to create areas of interest in their artwork.
- They evaluate their own artworks and identify similarities between their artworks and the still-life works by artists such as Margaret Preston, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Vermeer, Matisse and Margaret Olley.
Suggested materials
Copies of Sunflowers by Van Gogh and Still Life by Margaret Preston, vases, still-life arrangement, leaves, flowers, paint, brushes, oil pastels, art paper, corrugated cardboard, pencils, textas, PVA glue, vegetable dyes, scissors, masking tape, tissue paper, crepe paper
Prior learning
Students have viewed and discussed artworks such as Sunflowers by Van Gogh and Still Life by Margaret Preston. They have been guided in considering the ways in which the artist has used particular materials, varied the lengths and shapes of flower stems, added contrast, created harmony and used the background to create an effect on the vase of flowers.
They have viewed a variety of vases and discussed their symmetry, dimensions, colours, bases, patterns and the materials from which they were made. They have made silk screen prints of vases from paper stencils. The students have also observed a still-life arrangement and discussed its composition. They have experimented with different drawing, painting and collage materials to create artworks.
Board of Studies NSW, Creative Arts K–6 Units of Work, pp 26–31
Outcomes
Making (VAS1.1)
Makes artworks in a particular way about experiences of real and imaginary things.
Making (VAS1.2)
Uses the forms to make artworks according to varying requirements.
Appreciating (VAS1.3)
Realises what artists do, who they are and what they make.
Criteria for assessing learning
Students will be assessed on their:
- investigation of different drawing, painting and collage techniques
- representation of the different features of flowers and other still-life objects using colour, shape, line and pattern
- identification of the materials and techniques used by artists and how different artists make different artworks about flowers and still-life objects.