For our last lesson focussing on colour I had the students choose an emotion and try to express it using colour, line and shape.
We began by looking at abstract paintings by a few artists and wondering together what emotions they might be trying to express. As the students called out different feelings I kept a list on the board. Both the Preps and the Grade 1/2s came up with a huge list of words and I enjoyed searching with students for the words to describe those strange and overwhelming shades of joy, sadness and wonder that we experience everyday. Here are some of my favourite interpretations.
Mark Rothko's Untitled (Orange & Yellow)
Prep - Joy
Grade 1/2 - Sadness
Fred Williams' Sherbrooke Forest
Prep - Nervous
Grade 1/2 - Fear
Patrick Heron's Azalia Garden
Prep - Crazy
Grade 1/2 - Frustrated
As you can see from just a few of the many responses these paintings recieved, each student had their own interpretation of the works and I used this as an opportunity to support and celebrate individual translations of works of art. One of the best things about viewing art in the classroom is it there is no right answer. Every student will bring their own life and experience to the work and attach to it their own understanding. Bless them.
After this students had a go at showing an emotion through colours.
The Grade 1/2s began with grey lead sketches in order to help them focus on the shapes and lines that may represent their emotion. This really seemed to help them as they weren't too precious with the sketches and were challenged to try a variety of approaches. One of the Grade 1s had a breakthrough moment as he tried to draw a 'frustrated' line. Disappointed with the first attempt I encouraged him to really feel frustrated as he drew the line. With each attempt his line became more jagged. The whole class agreed that the last two lines were the most frustrated on the page.
Moving to colour was fascinating. Little debates sprang up all over the room as one student would turn to another and declare, "Pink isn't for excited, it's for frustrated". Such claims were passionately debated and fortunately most parties agreed to disagree, very rarely did I have to step in.
On the tables I left out the laminated prints I had used during the initial discussion and these provided students with a wealth of ideas for colour combinations, interesting shapes and expressive lines. Most popular was Kandinsky's Composition 8, which was passed from table to table. It's pulsing and buzzing shapes were often reflected in students' work.
To close the lesson I held up some of the students work and we would all try to guess which emotion was being expressed. Again there was laughter coupled with passionate debate. It was a great way to end the term. Here are some of the final pieces:
Lonely
Sad
Sad
