Creative development: Grand masters

Put children in the picture about using art for creative expression by looking at famous paintings and thinking about imitating their techniques, says Beverley Michael

The work of famous artists can be an invaluable source of inspiration for children's own paintings, enabling them to learn about different styles of art while experimenting with new techniques and materials.

However, success in developing children's appreciation of art and promoting their confidence as young artists depends on both good resources and practice. Ideally, early years providers should:

• Have a well-stocked creative area, with a wide range of mark-making utensils and paper (rough, smooth, thick, thin, coloured and plain). n Offer paint in a variety of colours and consistencies and take care of brushes.
  
  
• Always present the materials in an appealing and easily obtainable way.
  
  
• Gather a collection of portraits (include as many different cultures as possible), self-portrait, landscape and still-life paintings. Include reproductions in art books, posters, slides, stamps, coins, postcards, pictures from magazines and photographs. Check out gallery websites, which often enable you to view part of the collection on screen. For example, some of the Tate collections can be viewed on www.tate.org.uk, as can the National Portrait Gallery's on www.npg.org.uk.

Portraits
Talk to the children about how people have always been used by artists as subjects to paint or draw. The most common way is for the artist to make a 'portrait' - a picture of someone so that people can recognise who it is.

• Look at your collection of art. Ask the children to make a collection of portraits only. Study the different types of representations of people's faces. Remind the children that portraits can be created in different ways - by painting, drawing, photographs or sculptures.

Can the children determine from the portraits whether the people are happy or sad? Why do they think the people might be feeling like that? Look at how appearances have changed over the centuries. Compare clothes and hair styles from past and present times.

• Encourage the children to produce a portrait of a friend or staff member. Emphasise the need for the model to sit still while the child studies them carefully, noting the appearance of their eyes, hair and skin. When completed, write the name of the subject underneath the portrait, or attach a small photograph, and cover with a flap of paper with 'Who is it?' written on. The children can guess the identity of the portrait and see if they are correct by lifting the flap.
  
  
• Make a mosaic portrait using lots of small pieces of coloured paper cut from magazines, wrapping paper, old birthday or Christmas cards. Try to find different shades of the same colour, especially flesh tones.
  
  
• Explain to the children that if they paint a portrait of themselves it is called a self-portrait.
  
  
• Provide either mirrors or photographs of the children and encourage them to create a self-portrait. Allow the children to experiment in different media. When the self-portrait is completed, glue it to a large piece of thick card. Decorate the outer edge of the card as a frame, using lace, flowers, beads, shells, paint and so on.
  
  
• Look at self-portraits by Rembrandt and Van Gogh, and see how different they are. Mix thick paint using flour or PVA and encourage the children to paint their portrait using thick swirls like Van Gogh. Use lolly sticks, combs or fingers to add texture to hair.
  
  
• Discuss how the children can use colour to reflect their mood. Use background swirls of red for excitement, black or purple for anger, orange or yellow for happiness, blue if you are sad and multi-coloured zig-zags or spots if you are in a funny mood.

Still life

• Introduce the concept of a still life to the children by looking at some by famous artists. Explain that it is a picture in which the subject can be arranged as you wish and remains still. 'Sunflowers' by Van Gogh and 'Still Life with Apples' by Cezanne are famous examples.
  
  

• Cut some fruit such as apples, oranges, lemons or grapefruit in half and let the children experiment by printing with them. Then see if they can paint a fruit bowl of printed fruit.
  
  
• Collect some simple objects in primary colours (a red tomato, blue bottle, yellow vase, green apple) and encourage the children to examine them carefully. In small groups, let the children choose one to paint.
  
  
• Provide a vase of flowers for the children to paint. Use distinctively shaped flowers - daisies, poppies and buttercups are excellent.
  
  
• Let the children arrange their own still-life compositions, perhaps using a favourite toy with a brightly coloured cloth on the table. Landscapes
  
  
• Ask the children to look out of the window. Wherever they are they will see a view, whether they are in a city, in the countryside, by the sea or near a park.
  
  
• Look at landscapes such as 'The Haywain' by John Constable, and 'Fields under Thunderclouds' by Vincent Van Gogh. Weather plays a big part in the painting of a landscape. Encourage the children to look at the sky. What colour is it? What are the clouds like?
  
  
• Notice where the land meets the sky - this is the 'horizon'. The area furthest away from you is the background, the area in the front is the foreground. Things in the foreground are closest and will be larger and darker than those in the background.
  
  
• Can the children draw the view from their window? What can they see?
  
  
• Look at 'The Artist's Garden at Giverny' by Claude Monet (left). It is painted by using small dabs of paint. Challenge the children to paint a landscape using blobs of paint. It will help to draw the picture first.
  
  
• Look at cityscapes by LS Lowry such as 'Street Scene, Berwick upon Tweed'. Can they see how everything is tall, straight and angular while the countryside is soft and curved? You cannot see far in the city because the view is often blocked by buildings. In the countryside you can see further.
  
  
• Look also at seascapes such as those by JMW Turner. Experiment by painting sea pictures using thin paint and brushing the paper lightly with water before starting.

Abstract

• Introduce a variety of abstract pictures to the children by artists such as Picasso, Jackson Pollock or Piet Mondrian. These are paintings which have non-representational qualities.
  
  
• Let the children make doodlings and collages of strips of discarded paper or objects found on a walk.
  
  
• Create abstract pattern pictures by dripping paint randomly across paper through a hole in a yoghurt pot, making patterns in thick paint mixed with flour or sand, squirting or dribbling runny paint from an empty washing up liquid bottle, or marble painting. Look at Jackson Pollock's 'Blue Poles'.

Art gallery

• Visit a local art gallery. Create one in your setting by displaying all the children's paintings framed with strips of paper.
  
  
• Divide the paintings in sections such as 'Portraits' and 'Landscapes'.
  
  
• Have an opening with orange juice and crisps and invite parents and friends to view the pictures.