Jackson Pollock inspired art lessons are always fun for the kids, minimum prep for the teacher with great results. It's a win-win situation except for the fact that it's crazy messy so make sure you and your students are wearing fully covered aprons before you begin. I chose to do a mini lesson with oil pastels first to reinforce the concept of abstract and then follow up with splash painting for the main activity.
Materials required for the mini lesson:
- glue
- A4 paper
- oil pastels
- a small section of a Pollock painting for each student
Duration: 1 lesson of 80 minutes
The mini lesson:
1. To gain an introduction to the artist and his style of painting, I showed the students a video clip from YouTube. While they were watching, I asked them to look for two things: (a) How is Pollock painting? (b) Where is he painting?
2. After watching the video, we discussed the two questions and other key facts about the artist and looked at more examples of his work. What also talked about the lines, shapes and colours he used.
3. I then explained to the students that we would each receive a small section of his painting and without seeing the entire painting beforehand, we would have to predict what the rest of the painting looked like.
4. To make this process clearer to the students I gave them a demonstration. First, glue down the section anywhere on the A4 paper. Then, with oil pastels, continue the lines, shapes and colours as if you were completing Pollock's painting for him. Stress on the importance of filling up the white spaces and using colours similar to those of the artist.
5. Enjoy the results!
Before I taught the lesson I had a feeling that I would end up with a bunch of scribbles but I was honestly surprised with such beautiful results!
Materials required for the main activity:
- tempera paint
- A3 paper
- brushes, water
- an assortment of stamping/texture tools such as sponges, rollers, stamps, etc.
Duration: 1 lesson of 80 minutes
The main activity:
1. Now that we already had basic knowledge about Pollock, we recapped key characteristics of his work to refresh our memories.
2. On a white A3 paper, I had the students flat paint the background first in one colour only with a large brush. This lesson coincided with the UAE's Independence Day celebrations so therefore the kids had a limited palette. They could only use the colours of the UAE flag (red, black, green or white). I suppose you could start by giving them coloured paper so that they won't have to paint a background but I love the texture and strokes that can be seen on a hand painted background.
3. With a small brush and stamping tools, the students created random shapes and patterns similar to the style of the artist. Here the kids had free range in terms of design and could use any colour of the flag so long as it wasn't the same colour as their background. I had the kids use rollers, stamps and found objects such as forks, sticks and sponges to create variety within their work.
4. Now for the messy part! I covered the hallway floor with plastic and had the kids place their work on the floor adjacent to each other. We stood in a circle around the paintings and I demonstrated how to drip, splash and splatter the paint. The students took it in turns to splash (3 at a time). The squeals of excitement were priceless although I had to tell them to keep it down quite a few times! Left them to dry overnight and it's all done! Would you do this with your students?
Materials required for the mini lesson:
- glue
- A4 paper
- oil pastels
- a small section of a Pollock painting for each student
Duration: 1 lesson of 80 minutes
The mini lesson:
1. To gain an introduction to the artist and his style of painting, I showed the students a video clip from YouTube. While they were watching, I asked them to look for two things: (a) How is Pollock painting? (b) Where is he painting?
2. After watching the video, we discussed the two questions and other key facts about the artist and looked at more examples of his work. What also talked about the lines, shapes and colours he used.
3. I then explained to the students that we would each receive a small section of his painting and without seeing the entire painting beforehand, we would have to predict what the rest of the painting looked like.
 |
| The entire Pollock painting, The Moon Woman Cuts the Circle - I showed them this image at the end of the lesson. |
 |
| The small section I gave the students |
Before I taught the lesson I had a feeling that I would end up with a bunch of scribbles but I was honestly surprised with such beautiful results!
Materials required for the main activity:
- tempera paint
- A3 paper
- brushes, water
- an assortment of stamping/texture tools such as sponges, rollers, stamps, etc.
Duration: 1 lesson of 80 minutes
The main activity:
1. Now that we already had basic knowledge about Pollock, we recapped key characteristics of his work to refresh our memories.
2. On a white A3 paper, I had the students flat paint the background first in one colour only with a large brush. This lesson coincided with the UAE's Independence Day celebrations so therefore the kids had a limited palette. They could only use the colours of the UAE flag (red, black, green or white). I suppose you could start by giving them coloured paper so that they won't have to paint a background but I love the texture and strokes that can be seen on a hand painted background.
3. With a small brush and stamping tools, the students created random shapes and patterns similar to the style of the artist. Here the kids had free range in terms of design and could use any colour of the flag so long as it wasn't the same colour as their background. I had the kids use rollers, stamps and found objects such as forks, sticks and sponges to create variety within their work.
4. Now for the messy part! I covered the hallway floor with plastic and had the kids place their work on the floor adjacent to each other. We stood in a circle around the paintings and I demonstrated how to drip, splash and splatter the paint. The students took it in turns to splash (3 at a time). The squeals of excitement were priceless although I had to tell them to keep it down quite a few times! Left them to dry overnight and it's all done! Would you do this with your students?
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