Understanding Art: A Guide for Teachers

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, color, and shape.

This book systematically explores the basic knowledge needed to do this effectively. The author deals with the visual elements of art, their properties, how they are related, and especially the ways in which children′s knowledge of each can be developed through simple but creative activities. Each element is placed in context, with extensive cross-referencing. The author shows how these elements can be observed in the children′s environment and provides examples of how they have been used in works of art and craft.

Contents include:

• Art as exploration
• Point
• Line
• Tone
• Mixing and controlling color
• Perceiving and observing color
• Responding to color
• Shape
• Space
• Form
• Texture
• Pattern

This accessible book does not assume any specialist knowledge or experience. It is essential for teachers at primary and secondary levels, art coordinators, and for undergraduate and postgraduate level students of art education.

Martin Wenham originally trained in plant biology and forestry, becoming a teacher in 1967, after four years in full-time research. His teaching experience has included work in secondary, primary and special schools, with pupils of all ages from 5 to 18. Between 1989 and 1998 he was a Lecturer in Primary Education at the University of Leicester, specializing in science and art.