Talking Points: Drawn to Antarctica
How can drawing help us better understand a place?
Frances Hatch creates work in response to the landscape. Working on site, she responds directly to her surroundings using a wide variety of materials, including paints, inks, and collaged elements, which she combines with locally sourced pigments. Her site-responsive work is made in many locations, from her local landscape to places much further afield, including Antarctica.
Take a look at some of Frances Hatch’s drawings and paintings of Antarctica below and use the following questions to begin a discussion about her work.
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Drawn to Antarctica by Frances Hatch
Drawn to Antarctica is a book about a journey made by artist, Frances Hatch, who turned 50 and knew she needed to see Antarctica. The trip only lasted a fortnight and yet years on she is still pondering the significance of what she witnessed. Information is gathered here from notes in sketchbooks, photographic records, paintings and drawings.
Current information about Frances’ work as artist and art educator can be found in her website.
Iceberg Collages
Questions to Ask Children
What colours and shapes can you see?
What time of day might it have been when Frances made the collage? Why do you think that?
How do you feel when you look at the artwork?
Compare two of the artworks. What are the differences and similarities? Which do you prefer and why?
Water
Questions to Ask Children
What colours can you see in the water?
What different marks can you see?
Why do you think there are so many colours in the water?
What do you think the weather was like that day?
Imagine you are in the painting. What can you hear, smell, feel?
Which is your favourite and why?
Penguins
Questions to Ask Children
What different lines and marks can you see?
Is this a landscape you’d expect to see penguins in? Why?
How has Frances captured perspective?
How has Frances captured a sense of movement in the drawing?
This Talking Points Is Used In...
Pathway: Using Art To Explore Global Issue
using sketchbooks to make visual notes
Show me what you see
