A collection of imagery and sources designed to stimulate conversation around the work of Saoirse Morgan.
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Saoirse Morgan
“My paintings explore my connection with familiar landscapes. The subject of my work is my home terrain of West Wales: the landscape, the coast, the ecology. I am inspired by local colour, plant life, atmosphere and weather. I spent my childhood on small islands, surrounded by swirling tide races and wild, wind-blown seas. My terrestrial environment is maritime heath and lowland heath. It’s a warm, familiar colour palette, dominated by bracken, heather and gorse.” – Saoirse
Questions to Ask Children
How does Saoirse’s painting process connect to the sea?
How do the colours, shapes and textures evoke the atmosphere of the sea?
Questions To Ask Children
How does the painting, and process capture the essence of the sea?
What do you like / dislike about the painting?
How does the painting make you feel?
Questions to Ask Children
Are there any animals / insects / plants in your local area that has been suffering the consequences of climate change? How has your local landscape been affected?
How can abstract artwork help us use our imagination?
Paul Klee was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, celebrated for his distinctive abstract and childlike style. His work was deeply influenced by poetry, colour theory, and music, as well as by major artistic movements such as Surrealism, Cubism, and Expressionism.
Explore his paintings using the sources below, then discuss the questions provided.
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Watercolour Paintings by Paul Klee
Klee was born in 1879 in Switzerland. When he was 35 he visited Tunisia in Africa, where his experience of the light and colours of the landscapes and architecture helped awaken his interest in colour.
He became less interested in painting exactly what he saw and in fact from 1915 onwards he never again worked from a model. Instead, he became interested in painting the colours around him, letting them detach themselves from the objects the colours were on. In this way his worked moved towards Abstraction.
He became interested in creating fantastical worlds, full of symbols, shapes, colour and line.
He took his inspiration from the world around him, and his imaginative response to the world, and also from poetry, music and literature.
Sometimes his work was serious and meditative, other times it was full of humour. He also loved the sounds of words and phrases and the titles of works were often very important to Klee.
Battle scene from the funny and fantastic opera “The Seafarers” (1923). Painting by Paul Klee. Original from the Kunstmuseum Basel Museum
Questions to Ask Children
Describe what you see.
What do you think is happening?
How does the title change the painting?
Why do you think Klee painted in blocks of colour?
How does the painting make you feel?
The Firmament Above the Temple (1922) by Paul Klee. Original from The MET Museum
Questions to Ask Children
Describe what you see.
Can you see the landscape and the sky? How has Klee painted them?
How does the painting make you feel?
Temple Gardens (1920) by Paul Klee. Original from The MET Museum
Questions to Ask Children
Describe what you see.
How does this landscape make you feel?
If you were there, in the painting, how would you feel?
Tell me about the colours. Why do you think Klee choose these colours?
Persian Nightingales (1917) by Paul Klee. Original portrait painting from The Art Institute of Chicago.
Questions to Ask Children
Describe what you see.
What materials do you think Klee used?
Can you see two letters?
The R and the N stand for Rose and Nightingale. Can you spot the rose and the Nightingales in the painting?
How does this painting make you feel?
How do you think the painter felt when he painted it?
Watch this animation of one of Klee’s paintings.
Questions to Ask Children
How do you feel watching the animation?
What kind of world has Klee/the animator created?
If you could animate one of the paintings above, how would you bring it to life? What would you make it do?
In this video, Klee’s paintings are shown alongside music.
Questions to Ask Children
How does the music change the way you look at the paintings?
Do you think Klee would have liked this video (remember Klee made his paintings at a time when there were very few films).
Basic and Budget Friendly Art Materials for Primary Schools
Still Life Compositions: Inspired by Cezanne
What We Like About This Resource….
“This activity walks through a number of different processes and taps into multiple skills.This provides a rich exploratory project for children to fully immerse themselves in. Cezanne was the focus artist for this project, but other contemporary still life painters could be used as starter inspiration. We actually advocate showing the work of more than one artist as this builds knowledge of how approaches to painting, drawing etc differ. This also helps children move towards a personal response rather than creating a ‘copy’ of one particular artist’s work” – Rachel, AccessArt
talking points: Flemish and Dutch Still Life Painters
Which Artists: Jason Line
What We Like About This Resource….
“It’s always so inspiring to hear how different artists work and we particularly like the detailed references Jake makes to his process – marking out the composition using neutral tones; adding and taking away compositional elements and gradually building in more colour and detail. Delivering a still life session in a classroom could begin with this process and encourage the practice of looking at positive and negative space. Some suggested resources below also touch on this”. – Rachel, AccessArt
“We love how this activity provides an opportunity to explore a well known Artist’s work, through focussing on their materials and techniques. The children looked at Frank Bowling’s work before creating their own individual responses that retained individual ownership – something we advocate as part of a rich and balanced visual arts education. It was also great to see how a professional artist visited the school to further enhance the children’s experience.” – Rachel, AccessArt
