Landscapes That Come to Life

Part of this year’s Learning Through Art project was aimed at finding peace through art, motivating the children and helping them build frustration tolerance. By observing nature—natural processes that unfold step by step, such as changing colors in a landscape or animal life cycles—they understood the importance of taking their time to do things and cultivating patience.

First, the students considered the presence of nature in art history, taking a look at works from various artists. This overview included fantastic creatures as well, and the associations between colors and emotions. Then, they went into action, creating landscapes by combining different color planes. This activity was used to teach synthesis and abstraction in art, with an emphasis on solid colors or color blocks. In addition, the students tried a wide range of painting, cutting, and paper assembling techniques.

Later on, animals were added using pop-ups. The pop-up figures brought movement to the flat compositions. Thus, the landscapes came to life with the incorporation of the 3D fauna, popping out of the solid backgrounds.

The final step was to build a stage set or diorama together. This activity was aimed at promoting team work and cooperation, helping the children develop coping mechanisms for collaborative projects which are carried out over time and highlighting the need to focus on one stage at a time during the creative process.