By Eilis Hanson.

Eilis Hanson is a primary school teacher who loves to get art into the curriculum, wherever and whenever she can! She has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Newcastle University and studied at Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna during her third year there. More recently, she has studied watercolour painting in Verona. Eilis has taught children in Indonesia, Japan and Italy and now lives and works in Cambridge. She has exhibited sculptures, prints and installations in Newcastle, Vienna and Istanbul.

In response to the National Gallery’s Take One Picture initiative, our school chose to spend a week focusing on Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’‘s dramatic painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768). After discussing and exploring the painting in assemblies, each class was set the challenge of responding through art and literacy. The Year Two children were particularly interested in the cockatiel in the painting. Having learnt about the artist’s dramatic use of chiaroscuro, the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, they had a go themselves using black pastels and rubbers to create their own tactile drawings of cockatiels.

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AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.

A collection of imagery and sources designed to stimulate conversation around the work of Alvaro Naddeo.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

Alvaro Naddeo

“Art has a political role. I believe we as artists can and should put subjects to be discussed, to be reflected upon, and to be talked about.”

Alvaro Naddeo is originally from São Paulo, Brazil and currently in Los Angeles, USA.

Alvaro’s father was an illustrator and Alvaro spent much of his childhood drawing, however he moved into advertising as a profession. Recently he returned to make his own artwork.

Alvaro wears contact lenses or glasses to correct his “bad eyesight” but he doesn’t like to wear glasses when he paints. When he takes his glasses off, the world is blurry, except when he is very close up to his work, at which point it is focussed. He thinks this is why he enjoys creating so much detail in his paintings. 

In terms of subject matter, Alvaro credits his years working in advertising as being an influence. He paints recognisable brands and disposable objects which are both attractive to us and also remind us of our tendency towards wasting resources. 

Visit Alvaro’s website to see more of his wonderful work. 

“The subject matter of my work is waste, overconsumption and social inequality” Alvaro Naddeo

Please note in the video below there is a small and brief detail of a woman’s torso. As teacher pls decide if you want to show the video. 

Apologies if you cannot view the video below on Youtube if your school has blocked Youtube. 

Questions to Ask Children

Take a really close look at Alvaro’s work on his website. Notice how his work changes over time. 

What do you think Alvaro’s main interest are? How many different elements / objects does he bring into one piece? How does he connect them? Does he play with scale?

How do you think Alvaro uses his skill as a painter to draw attention to issues which he thinks are important?

How long do you spend looking at each painting? Do you understand more about the work the longer you spend looking?

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