Understanding Art

In any area of the curriculum, children need to learn concepts, facts and skills through first-hand experience. In art, such learning depends on exploring and experimenting with the visual language through which artists communicate, and the visual elements such as line, colour and shape.

PART ONE: ART AS EXPLORATIONInvestigating, Making and Responding to ArtVisual Language and The Visual ElementsLearning Through Investigation of the Visual ElementsBuilding on the FoundationsPART TWO: POINTThe Concept of PointInvestigating Points and their PotentialPoint In ContextPART THREE: LINEThe Concept of LineInvestigating Line Some Starting-PointsDeveloping LineLine in ContextPART FOUR: TONEThe Concept of ToneInvestigating ToneThe Perception of ToneTone in ContextPART FIVE: MIXING AND CONTROLLING COLOURThe Concept of ColourColour MixingTints and ShadesOptical Colour MixingColour Range and Mixing in ContextPART SIX: PERCEIVING AND OBSERVING COLOURColour Constancy and Colour InteractionFinding, Matching and Mixing ColoursPerceiving Colour in ContextPART SEVEN: RESPONDING TO COLOURResponses to Individual ColoursColour Groupings and Responses to ThemColour Responses in ContextPART EIGHT: SHAPEThe Concept of ShapeInteraction of ShapesInvestigations of ShapeShape in ContextPART NINE: SPACEThe Concept of SpaceObjective Space Figure and GroundIllusory SpaceObjective Space in ContextIllusory Space in ContextPART TEN: FORMThe Concept of FormThe Visual Properties of FormInvestigating Form Moving into the Third DimensionForm in ContextPART ELEVEN: TEXTUREThe Concept of TextureTactile TextureVisual TextureTexture in ContextPART TWELVE: PATTERNConcepts of Visual PatternRotating and Linear PatternsInvestigations of Surface PatternSpace-Dividing PatternsPattern in Context