Visual Arts Planning: The Seaside

If you are a member of AccessArt please use this form if you would like to suggest a visual arts planning topic that you would like help with. You can see all of the current topics in our visual arts planning series here.


During a recent InSET training session, teachers in a Suffolk primary school, suggested that they needed resources to help them with their theme this term which is the ‘Seaside’.

If you are a teacher or artist and would like to share your creative approaches for exploring this theme, then please do get in touch with paula@accessart.org.uk

In the meantime, here are a few posts to help schools explore the seaside, the beach and all things summer!

Drawing and Painting

Museum collections

Drawing shells from a museum collection Teenagers explore drawing shells on loan from Cambridge University Museum of Zoology with Sheila Ceccarelli.

Drawing Water

Drawing water In this workshop, children aged 6 to 10 are inspired by the studies of water by Leonardo da Vinci and some contemporary drawings by Rosie Leventon.

Painting a Still Life and seeing colour

painting shells Artist Educator, Emma Copley demonstrates in this beautifully illustrated resource, a step-by-step method for producing a painting of a shell, or similar object, in gouache.

drawing spiral snails

Drawing spirals and shapes from nature Join artist Tracy McGuinness-Kelly in exploring recurring spiral shapes in nature.

drawing as a support activity

Supporting making sculpture with drawing Paula Briggs describes how she enables an exploration of drawing as an activity to support other artforms, in this case sculpture.

Communal drawing! summer picnic

Communal drawing What is better on a hot summer’s evening than to draw a picnic? (And then eat it!)’.

detached and timeless painting

Capturing the movement of the sea with paint Artist and educator Sara Dudman shares examples, inspiration and support for working creatively from video to capture movement, including that of the sea, and a sense of place in painting.

mark making and water

Creating mark making tools and painting water Teachers make a group drawing of water at an InSET session with Sheila Ceccarelli.

working with and in the landscape

Exploring landscape painting Artist Frances Hatch generously shares her magical processes for creating site specific art, inspired by a variety of environments including costal, woodland and urban environments.

Making

making plaster reliefs

Creating plaster reliefs This resources describes how to create plaster reliefs using clay and foamboard moulds.

exploring materials: clay and water

Tactical investigation of clay Encouraging tactile investigation of clay, with no end result intended or prescribed.

making felt boats

Making felt boats Artist Ruth Purdy share a process to combine felt pieces with bright embroidery floss, buttons and beads to make colourful sailing boats.

building drawings with modroc

using modroc to build paintings In this one and a quarter hour long session, teenagers work with Sheila Ceccarelli to explore drawing rocks found on the beach and build drawings with modroc and graphite.

Introducing scraffito

Using Sgraffito Artist Eleanor Somerset demonstrates how to do Sgraffito: layers of coloured clay slip are applied to an unfired ceramic body and scratched into to create drawings on clay.

Making wave bowls

Making wave bowls Co-created vessels, part inspired by ceramics by Grayson Perry, and loosely based around a holiday theme as the summer holidays.

making boats that float

Making boats from scrap material What makes a boat float? A rich, and rewarding activity with plenty of time to play with, and explore materials.

Making shells

Making shells from cardboard Using shells to inspire building with stuff and exploring how materials might work together to create form, structure and texture.

a modroc festival feast

making food sculptures from modroc Everyone has a favourite food, and there’s no better inspiration to make a communal sculpture than sweets, cakes, party food and ice cream!