Take One Picture: Class Activities

Take One Picture is the National Gallery’s countrywide scheme for primary schools which aims to inspire a lifelong love of art and learning by promoting the role of visual arts within education. Our pupils looked at the techniques used to create some famous artworks, taking them as inspiration for their own paintings. Each year group chose a French artist and painting to focus on.

Nursery, Year 2 and Year 5 chose to look at Seurat’s ‘Bathers at Asnieres’. They investigated pointilism and the use of colour in Seurat’s work, but approached it in different ways: Nursery used finger painting to explore the dotty patterns; Year 2 used cotton buds to recreate his style; Year 5 used the end of the paintbrush to gain a similar effect but focused on French landscapes as their subject.

Year 1 and Year 3 chose Renoir’s ‘Umbrellas’ as a starting point. Year 1 looked at the canopy of umbrellas that Renoir had created and, exploring pattern and design, they created some fantastic designs for their own umbrellas.

Year 3 used the figures in the picture to create their own dioramas of the scene. Year 4 also looked at Renoir’s work to produce their fantastic dioramas.

 

Reception children looked at Monet’s ‘Water Lily Pond’ to explore colour mixing and using the brush to recreate the dappling light and colours of the water lily pond. They added lily pads and flowers with tissue and paper to complete the effect.

Well done to all of our budding artists for creating their very own magnificent masterpieces.