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Listed under:  Arts  >  Visual arts
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Going on an adventure

Explore drama and visual arts activities using an adventure story as a stimulus.

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The Art and Science of Impressionist Color

In this sequence of lessons, students will learn about the Impressionist painters' use of colour and how it connected to early-19th-century scientific theories about colour. They will explore combinations of primary and secondary colours, experiment creating secondary colours, and create a landscape using complementary colours.

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Expressing emotions through Art

This unit focuses on feelings depicted or expressed in works of art. Children make personal connections with works of art that express themes of caring and study how artists use art principles such as space, line, shape, and color to express mood and meaning. Each lesson encourages children to express thoughts and feelings ...

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Celebration and Satire

This lesson plan guides students to compare and contrast different perspectives of the French Revolution as depicted in two works of art. They will discuss the use of satire and caricature to comment on historical and current events and will create satirical cartoons based on contemporary issues.

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Conrad Martens: 'View from Rose Bank' 1840

Many early artists romanticised the Australian colonial landscape and did not always strictly paint what they saw. In this example Martens has given the landscape a decidedly Italian atmosphere, softening the colour palate and creating a more ‘civilised' view. Can you think of why the artist may be interested in changing ...

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Finding beauty in the everyday

Lin Martin is passionate about the connections between science, nature, humanity and Buddhism, all of which come together in her art. Her photographs explore the beauty all around us, in our everyday natural surroundings. It is in these small moments captured by her work, where she draws attention to tiny details in nature, ...

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John Glover: 'Patterdale landscape with cattle' c. 1833

John Glover migrated to Tasmania in 1831, arriving on his 64th birthday. He is considered one of Australia's most important artists of the early 19th century and the colonial period. This piece was one of the first he completed after taking up a land grant in Patterdale on the Nile River. The pastoral scene depicts the ...

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Eugene von Guérard: 'Purrumbete from across the lake' 1858

Lured to Australia by the discovery of gold, Eugene von Guérard was the lead painter in the first century of European settlement. This piece is one of a pair that was commissioned by land owners Peter and John Manifold. Von Guérard was known for his mastery of landscapes, and his attention to detail and interest in the ...

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The Sydney Bird Painter: 'The white gallinule' c. 1791-92

Can you imagine what it would have been like to arrive in Australia and see its unique flora and fauna for the first time? Scientific drawings of Australia's flora and fauna emerged with the arrival of the first European settlers who were fascinated by how unusual they were. Sadly, even as they documented these extraordinary ...

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John Lewin: 'Reed warbler' 1805

Natural history illustrator John Lewin was the first professional artist to come to Australia as a free settler. His collected illustrations of native birds became the first non-government book published in the colony. How difficult do you think it was to identify and illustrate so many different birds?

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Create: What is abstract art?

Traditionally artworks were representations of real life objects and environments. When you looked at these works you could usually identify what the artist was representing. How is abstract art different from this? Watch this video to see an example of an abstract painting, then have a go at creating one yourself!

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'The Rajah quilt' 1841

The Rajah quilt was made by female convicts on route from England to the colony of Tasmania in 1841. It consists of 2815 pieces of fabric and was presented to the Governor's wife upon arrival as a testament to the women's industry. The women learned these skills on the long journey to Australia on board their convict ship ...

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Creating art and meaning from waste

Welcome to Marina DeBris's exhibition, "Beach Couture: A Haute Mess". How would you describe Marina's art? What are the ideas she communicates through her artworks? How do the processes, materials and techniques Marina works with contribute to the creation of meaning in her art? Do you agree with Marina's belief that art ...

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Dreaming about Country

Discover the rich and beautiful world of Edwin Lee Mulligan's dreams, recorded in paintings and stories. In this clip on his work 'Ngarlimbah - it's about us', he tells one of his dreams of Country - his country, his mother's country and his father's country - the places, trees, mountains, rivers and creatures that connect ...

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Emma Boyd: 'The quail shooter' 1884

In this work Emma Boyd depicts the landscape near her home, ‘The Grange', in Victoria. See how the landscape dominates the single human figure? What do you think this suggests? What is the artists trying to say by creating this sense of scale?

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TrackSAFE Education Primary School Resources: Year 5, Year 6 The Arts

This unit uses dance, drama, visual arts and music to communicate student-created safety messages. Using a community-based scenario, students devise an improvised drama and choreograph a dance to highlight the importance of safe track-side behaviours; they use artworks to explore the effect of colour before creating a cartoon-based ...

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Finding your frame

Developing a concept by making artworks from found objects. Explore how artist, James Powditch, assembles found objects to create artworks inspired by his love of film.

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Operation Art 2019 Exhibition

This series of lessons take their inspiration from 20 artworks from students in Stages ES1 to S3 exhibited at the 2019 Operation Art Exhibition. Each lesson contains syllabus outcomes and indicators directly linked to teaching and learning activities with suggestions for formative assessment.

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Extending practical artmaking skills - using wire as a sculptural medium

Explore aluminium wire as a medium for creating a sculpture. Working with wire provides students with a great opportunity for problem solving as they consider line, space, shape, weight and balance. Aluminium wire can be easily adapted to your classroom as it's a pliable material that can be cut with scissors and is suitable ...

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Fun with flowers

Students discover the creative and scientific art of botanical illustration and respond to the drawing through poetry and music.