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They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this is
certainly true of art. Paintings that we love, speak out to
us. We can hear the sounds from a silent canvas and see
movement where paint has captured stillness. We can sense
emotions of joy and suffering. We can feel the atmosphere,
just as if we are part of the depicted scene. While art,
like music, speaks volumes for some and says nothing to
others, if we make our choices carefully, considering the
effect on our children, it can provide another wonderful
sensory stimulus for children’s writing. The work of artists
can promote worthwhile speaking and listening, encourage
certain ways of thinking and responding, developing close
observation skills and attention to detail.
I would never recommend a particular artist simply because
they have provided the stimulus for descriptive, imaginative
writing amongst my pupils. That would be just like using
someone else’s plan in a literacy hour. The artist whose
work I have used more than others is
John Freeman, the
Doncaster born, Whitby based painter.
 I found myself
staring, rain drenched at his wintry, night time rural
village scenes for ages, through his studio window, feeling
myself enter the world of his paintings. Dramatic skies with
dark grey clouds passing across the face of the full moon,
bright warmth flooding from open doorways, contrasting with
the cold dark outside. Wood smoke, timeless scenes, an
ancient church, an old man working while his grandson looks
on. Muffled voices, a frozen rutted lane, a stone horse
trough and the moon again. Freeman’s work is alive, for me
at any rate. But only use his paintings as a writing
stimulus if you feel what I feel when you stare at them.
Otherwise, choose your own artist.
 My approach when using
a visual stimulus is as follows: I gather the children and
show the paintings, asking what can be seen. After their
responses, I ask what sounds can be heard. Children always
hear sounds in the paintings and a bright spark will often
say it feels cold in the village. This will lead on to
verbal observations of time of year, weather conditions,
movement, stillness, activity, calm, peacefulness. I throw
in open ended, thought provoking questions such as “Who is
the woman coming from the house? Is she carrying something?”
The children then observe a painting closely, sometimes
close up, sometimes from afar, sometimes taking in the whole
scene, sometimes focusing on a particular section. |
Examples
The following pieces of writing take their titles from
Freeman’s paintings and the words provide mental images,
which are very close to those of the paintings themselves.
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The Forge
The humble, frosty moon lay calmly on its bed of velvety
clouds, like a silver ship on a midnight ocean of sky. It’s
glowing beams leap like white mice, lighting the way if ever
a weary traveller should stumble into the splashes of
darkness that wrapped the desolate land. The green grass
parted in the wind, now turning to ivory as the icy moon
pushed a ray through a crack in the winter clouds.
A rickety fence, the colour of icing sugar, trembled inside
their hollow hearts listening to the eerie moans of the
struggling wind. Behind this act of cowardice, a mighty
tree, coated in creeper plant, twisted and turned,
stretching it’s spiny arms towards the chalky moon as if it
were a king.
Next to this battered tree, a low building, rather like a
stable, stood with pleasure and wonder for the world around
it. Leaning against its crumbly wall, a rusty wooden wheel
sat peacefully in a blanket of darkness and a pillow of
minty grass. A corroded rake was at it’s side, amongst the
other throw-away tools which littered the patch of soggy
soil.
The wooden doors of the stable-like building were thrust
wide open, and the warming glow from a solitary light bulb
blew away the chilly mountainous wind. Inside, assorted
shelves studded the background. A cold stony floor led up to
a brick oven, which puffed a misty smoke into the silent
sky. Next to the oven, a variety of bottles seemed to rattle
like they were filled with bones. Pinkish curtains veiled
the tiny window. A candle dripped a chunk of wax onto the
china saucer it stood on. The wax stirred in its oily
landing, only to take form as the huge buttered moon, which
patrolled the secluded lane.
By Chloe – Y6, Tranmoor Primary, Doncaster.
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Going To Work
“Whoosh!” was the sound that represented the thick black
smoke coming from the humungous chimneys and then covered
the cold morning air. People were bent over to keep the
bellowing smoke out of their lungs. They travelled to work
each and every day and the noise was ear threatening.
Even though the factories were colourful, it was still ever
so dull, dark and damp. Thousands of people worked in these
horrible places. Coughing could be heard and the sound of a
dog barking, hoping his owner would find him. It was
possible that the sound of the rumbling motors in all the
factories in Manchester, could be heard off in the distance
in far off lands and cities. People were trying to escape
the horrible chemicals in the clouds.
All the houses were in rows like a rectangle landscape. Far
off in the distance there were two funnels where smoke
belched out. We will never know whether people survived, but
what we do know is that the disease cleared up forever.
Y2 child, Kingfisher Primary School, Doncaster.
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I use the work of artists as an inspiration for children to
write, rather than ask them to attempt to paint in the style
of say Lowry or Freeman, which is not easy for GCSE artists
to do, let alone children in KS2, who have often received
very little actual teaching in ways of handling a paint
brush or drawing with a pencil.
With a class of Y6 children, when studying living conditions
in the 1930’s, I used a set of Lowry prints as the stimulus
for descriptive writing. This combined elements of literacy,
history and art in a series of activities. I started by
using a OHP sheet which gave information about Lowry and the
stimulus for his work. Then I asked the children to observe
the paintings closely in pairs, while carrying out the
following task, lasting fifteen minutes:
1. Make a list of 6 things you can see in the paintings.
2. What is moving in the paintings?
3. What sounds can you hear?
4. Look closely at the people. What do you notice about
them?
5. Do you see anything in the distance?
6. What buildings do you see? What are they like?
7. What do Lowry's paintings tell you about the lives and
living conditions of the people in industrial towns during
the middle years of the 20th century?
They then presented their observations to another pair,
before we gathered as a class to discuss the various
elements of the task. The next step was to look at a close
up photograph of a victim of the depression, who, I told the
children, was a figure from out of one of Lowry’s
paintings. I then posed the question, “If you were able to
question the man, what would you ask him about life in
Manchester in the 1930’s?” I told them to decide on five
questions.
“Hey!” you might ask. “Is this literacy or is this history?”
Does it really matter? It is obviously both. There is a good
deal of worthwhile speaking and listening, responding to
questions with succinct answers in a limited time
allocation, a development of the skill of selective
questioning to assist historical research. From there we can
move onto detailed writing about the paintings, using the
observations and notes made earlier or use this lesson as a
starting point for in depth research. Well that’s History,
isn’t it! Or is it Literacy? |
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