What's In A Picture ?take One Picture

[Guest]

My Nursery Nurse has suggested that for an overarching topic in term 4 (this being term 3) we use a famous painting as a starting point and see where it takes us - I was really excited about this until I started looking for a painting - the ones I like thus far are by Pieter Bruegel (the Elder) but now I'm stuck can anyone suggest/offer any ideas around the topic 'take one Picture' This is the first time my NN has suggested a whole new topic and I really want to encourage her as she is great and works so hard, the bottom line is that the children need to have input and that we can ditch it if its not a success - also the planning takes into account their (the children) interests as well - so the painting needs to have lots going on to capture all tastes - any help gratfully received.

[emmajess]

The National Gallery's Take One Picture picture this year is Renoir's Umbrellas (Les Parapluies). We had a lot of fun investigating rain following a look at this picture! Also thinking about different weather and sorting clothes for different weathers / different weather pictures. The National Gallery website shows the other paintings they've used in the past and some examples of schools' work.

 

I've found Rousseau's Tiger in a Tropical Storm a great picture to start discussion - what is the tiger looking at? How is he feeling? What is he scared of?

 

In terms of creating art work, Impressionists and pointillists like Seurat lead to lovely work - we did finger paintings in pastel colours in the nursery, covering a piece of paper in different pastel coloured spots - it looked really effective - children exploring at their own level and on their own agenda, but also producing a really striking outcome.

 

Mondrian and Kandinsky (especially concentric circles) are great for work on shape and colour.

 

There's a lovely story called Katie's Picture Show, where a little girl climbs into lots of different paintings and has lots of adventures and this story is a good starting point too.

 

ummmm... I'll keep thinking!

[Guest]

I,ve also used Rousseau Tiger picture which children enjoyed. Have also had some great work out of Picasso style portraits and Warhol portraits led to brill work on colour.

[Guest]

We did quite a few weeks on 'Take One Picture' last year. We had two made pictures that we used Tiger in the Storm by Henry Rosseau and Sunflowers by Van Gogh.

 

The children absolutely loved it, epsecially our role play area which we turned into the tiger int he sotrm picture and they went investigating it after climbing through a picture frame!

 

We also recreated the sunflowers picture by Van Gogh, imitating his style and sent them home as Mothers' Day gifts, it went down a treat!

 

Such a lovely topic to do!

 

Good luck!

[Guest tinkerbell]

Our school has done the 'take one picture' for a few years as a whole school art topic with amazing results.One year the whole staff travelled down to the National Gallery for a training session on the picture .Three of the curators gave their 'take ' of the picture which was really interesting we were then taken to see a few choice pictures and had lunch....a really super experience.

 

Tinkerbell

[Gezabel]

I can certainly recommend Kandinsky's concentric circles

All our children did a square with circles in and we put them altogether to create our own kandinsky but it led on to masses of learning relating to colour, texture, shape size etc etc we just introduced the picture and went with the flow and it was brilliant

[Upsy Daisy]

How about a picture by L S Lowry?

 

There are some with dozens of people in and lots of them are telling their own story through their actions and posture.

[narnia]

I was about to suggest Mondrian, but someone beat me to it!!

[Guest]

thank you so much everyone - you have inspired me I quite like the Tiger in the Storm - but will leavethe final decision to my NNEB as it was her initial idea then we can brain storm and plan an outline together before asking the children - I think it will be great fun and will let you know

g

[Guest]

We did a whole school activity around the artist Archimboldo and this was a big hit with the Foundation Stage children! We brought in lots of different fruits and vegetables and made our own giant face with them!

[Guest]

My favourite starter is a painting or photograph. Here are few

 

Tiger in the storm

Sunflowers-Van Gogh

Irises-Van Gogh

Waterlilys and others by Monet

Snail-Matisse

Lowry-one with a bike chained to a railing with a wheel missing!

The Princess and the Frog-Symonds which is in a local gallery

Swimming pool-Paul Hockney and some of his montages using a camera

Kandinsky