Lesson video

Hi everyone.

I hope you're having a good day.

My name is Esther, some people call me Ms. Esther, and I'm an artist and art teacher.

I'm here today to share a lesson with you.

The lesson title is Layers and Symbols: Surface, Texture and Identity.

It's part of our unit, Charting Self: Exploring Identity.

Our outcome for the lesson today is that by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to create a textured artwork that expresses who you are through patterns, layers, and material.

We have some key words to look at together.

I'll say them and then we'll go through the meanings of the words.

You might know some of these words already.

The first word is texture.

Second word is impasto, and the third word is memory.

So texture is the way a surface looks or feels.

Impasto is using a thick paint to make a textured or bumpy surface on an artwork.

And memory is a word that we use quite a lot, it means something that you remember from the past, so it can be an event that you remember, a place, a feeling, a person.

Can you remember what you had this morning for breakfast? We have two learning cycles, layering and symbol: exploring surface, texture, and identity.

First of all, we're going to make a textured surface, very exciting 'cause we get to use something called impasto, and then secondly, we're going to be embedding images and objects into that impasto or thick surface.

Let's find out some more.

First of all, just thinking about textures.

Textures are all around us.

If you stop and look closely, you can see both natural and man-made textures all around.

I want you to just look at the screen for a moment and look at those two images and point to the one that is, first of all, a natural, a natural texture that you can see, give you a minute to do that, and then please point to one that you feel is a man-made texture, which is the man-made texture? Amazing.

Well done for taking part.

Artists are interested in all of these things, and artists use visual and tactile textures to make their work more interesting to themselves and for other people.

We've got an eye icon here, an eye symbol.

Visual texture is how something looks.

Does something look rough or smooth, even if you know it feels flat? And then we've got a hand symbol.

Tactile texture is how something feels when you actually touch it.

Use your fingers usually to touch something.

When artists notice textures around them, they might use 'em for inspiration for their work.

We've got some beautiful pencil drawings of different textures to look at here.

Texture in art might suggest emotion or an atmosphere.

It could help tell a story about a place or a memory.

It could look like patterns and marks be quite mysterious.

We have our first check for understanding here.

What does texture mean in art? Is it A, the size of the artwork? Is it B, the way a surface feels or looks like it would feel? Or is it C, the color and thickness of the paint? Pause the video and have a conversation as a big group about whether you think it's A, B, or C.

Restart the video when you've talked to each other about your ideas.

Thanks so much for those great conversations and for sharing your thoughts.

Did you get this answer? B, the way a surface feels or looks like it would feel.

That's the correct answer.

Looking at textures a bit more and natural texture might remind us of places of seasons, the time of year it is, or personal memories.

We've got six images here.

Let's take a moment to look together at the screen and choose an image of a texture that reminds us of a memory, a place or a person.

Pause the video and have a conversation with a partner about which texture you have chosen and why you chose it.

I'll share what I chose with you.

I chose the sand because it reminded me of being on a sunny beach with my family.

Man-made textures often reflect culture, design choices, and our history.

Again, let's have a together and choose a man-made texture.

Maybe it reminds you of a place or a person or there's a cultural memory there of a way of making.

You can see some basket weaving there and some lace, ooh, and lots of rope.

Pause the video and have a conversation with a partner about which texture you have chosen and why you chose it.

Restart the video when you've finished talking.

Fantastic looking, well done.

We've got an amazing artist to think about during our lesson today, Teresa Webber creates textured artworks that are full of meaning and full of memory.

She builds up the surface of her work layer by layer, using materials such as paint, fabric, paper or mixed media, different types of things and objects.

She uses textured surfaces to explore identity, history in place in a way that isn't always obvious at first glance.

So her work has an element of being mysterious.

Impasto means using thick paint to make a bumpy, textured surface on the artwork.

Artists often use impasto to add expression and emotion to their work, create a surface that feels tactile and alive and build up layers that can hold meaning or symbolism.

I wonder what the meaning of this green is in this artwork.

We have a check for understanding to do together, a brief pause.

We have a question, what is impasto? Is it A, a type of clay? Is it B, a drawing tool? Is it C, a thick paint that creates a bumpy texture? Or is it D, a kind of glue? Pause the video and talk to someone nearby about whether you think it's A, B, C, or D.

Restart when you've got your answer.

Great sharing of your thoughts.

I'm hoping that you got the answer, C, impasto is a thick paint that creates a bumpy texture.

Impasto can be made by mixing a thick paint using flour, paint, and water.

You can see here we've got some acrylic color.

We've got some flower in a container, and we've got some paint, green paint and water.

When the impasto has been made, and remember, when you mix it, you might have to decide when to stop.

Spread the paste onto card.

It's important that your impasto is thick, otherwise it's going to just run off the card.

You can see here this mix is thick and kind of gloopy.

With impasto, you can also use tools to change its surface.

You can use clay tools to scrape patterns and movement into the paste's surface.

We're ready to do task A, experimenting and making impasto out of flower, water, and paint.

Firstly, you're going to make a thick paste like impasto.

Then you're going to use clay tools to scrape patterns and movement into the paste's surface.

We can see in this image we've got some straight lines that have been scraped in and some wobbly lines as well.

Pause the video and have a great time making your impasto paste and applying it to a surface.

It's best to put it on something quite strong like cardboard.

Restart the video when you've completed task A.

How did it go? Did you have a good time mixing your impasto? I hope you did and I hope you tried adding different amounts of flour and water and experimented with seeing how thick you could get your paste.

I have some questions here for you to think about in response to your making activity.

How did the thick paste change when you scraped and pressed into it with the clay tools? What kind of patterns or movements did the clay tools help you to create? Did any of your textures remind you of a place, a feeling, or a memory? If you did this again, this is a great question.

What would you change or experiment with next? Working like artists, you're constantly working in progress towards something.

Artists get called practicing artists for a reason.

The practice never stops.

You're just carrying on a journey of creative exploration.

I wonder if you had any of these sorts when you were doing your making.

We've got Izzy and Jun to share with us.

Izzy says, "I sketched the rough bark on the tree and the repeating brick pattern on the wall.

When I scraped into the paste I used zigzag lines to copy the bark texture.

It made the surface feel bumpy and natural.

I liked how the paste held the marks, almost like carving into soft stone." Jun says, "I noticed the smooth metal of the fence and the swirly patterns in the leaves.

I used a clay tool to drag curvy lines into the paste so it looked like flowing water.

The patterns reminded me of the park I go to with my family.

It felt calm and familiar." So two really different artworks, it sounds like there, well done, Izzy, well done, Jun, thank you for sharing.

We have our second learning cycle for this lesson, embedding images and objects into our textured surface.

Okay, so we have something quite amazing to look at and a question.

What's the first thing that you notice when you look at this artwork? What objects and materials can you spot? Does it remind you of any places, textures or materials you've noticed in your own environment? Anything that's around you.

I'd like you to pause the video and have a look at this piece of art.

I can see at least one, two, three, four, five different things, not all the different material, but five different things to look at.

See how many you can name.

Think about if any are around you.

Pause the video and enjoy taking time to look and respond to an artwork.

Fantastic looking, and so many creative ideas from that one small piece of art.

Well done everyone for sharing your creative ideas.

I wonder if you had any of these sorts.

Izzy and Jun are sharing with us again.

Izzy says, "I noticed the bright green color straight away.

It looks like thick paint or grass.

The shells really stand out to me because they're a different color and texture." Jun says, "It reminds me of the beach because of the shells and shiny bits.

The green ridges look like fields or hills I've seen from above." Great, we have a pause here, a check for understanding.

True or false, the artist used a smooth paint with no texture to create the surface of the artwork.

Pause the video, have a conversation with someone nearby and justify whether you think this is true or false.

Great sharing of your thoughts.

Did you get the answer that it was false? It is false, let's find out why.

The artist has used a thick paste to create a raised and textured surface.

We have a question really about, I suppose, the themes or thoughts behind the artwork now.

What kind of place or landscape might this remind you of? So looking carefully at the collection of objects and maybe the background color as well.

Why do you think the artist chose to use these specific objects, shells, beads, and cut-out images? How might these objects link to memory, identity, or culture? I think a good starting point for this is to pause the video and have a group conversation.

Talk about what you can see.

Do the cowrie shells in the image remind you of a certain place or culture? You could say or choose an object that you do like and one you don't, but then you have to think of why you like it and why you don't.

Does it remind you of anything? Any place, anywhere, anyone? Pause the video and enjoy taking time to look and respond to an artwork.

We have Izzy and Jun back with us again to share their thoughts.

I hope you enjoyed having your deep conversations about memory, place, and culture.

Izzy says, "Maybe the shells and beads are special to them, like treasures or memories.

The objects might represent parts of the journey or places they've been.

The cut-out flower could show something important from nature or their culture." Lovely thoughts, Izzy, thank you.

Jun says, "Shells might remind them of the seaside or a place that's special to their family.

Beads could be part of a traditional jewelry or something passed down.

Each object might hold a different memory, like a little piece of their story." Going back to our amazing artist, Teresa Webber, Teresa Webber is an artist with family roots in Germany and Jamaica.

She explores stories, myths, and histories from the Caribbean and the African diaspora.

Her work shares these histories through materials and textures, so instead of painting on a flat surface, she builds up layers and presses in images, textures, and objects.

These create symbolic surfaces like maps of memory or identity.

If you look closely, you can spot little clues in the textures, things that tell a story about her experiences, culture or history.

In Teresa Webber's work, the surface becomes memory.

We are just going to have a check for understanding here.

A time to pause and think in-between making.

What is one reason artists press objects and images into their textured surfaces? Is it A, to make the artwork look messy? Is it B, to give clues about their identity or memories? Is it C to cover up mistakes, or is it D, to make it dry faster? Pause the video and have a conversation as a group about whether you think it's A, B, C, or D.

Great thinking.

Did you get the answer, B? An artist may use objects and images pressed into their work to give clues about their identity and their memories, and maybe as a way of getting you to also look at the artwork.

We are ready for task B now, embedding images and object.

Before you start, I wanted to show you these.

Can you guess what they are? Teresa Webber often uses this type of object in her work because it's important to her.

It's significant now and it's significant in one of the places that her family is from.

Let's have a look at how we're going to do task B together.

The first thing is to choose some found objects and press them or press images that you find interesting into your impasto surface, so it's things that you find interesting.

Your materials, patterns and objects can give hints about who you are without using words or even pictures of yourself.

A picture can tell us what you look like, but it doesn't tell us what your favorite food is or if you like playing games.

So it's important to think about things as, I guess clues to how someone might put your identity, what you enjoy, what you think about, who you are in the world, maybe something about your culture, how they might use those clues to get a picture of who you are.

The last thing is to do a bit of thinking and making.

What could someone learn from your textured surface if they didn't know you? There are many things I'm sure that they could learn or guess about you, and maybe some things will stay hidden, a mystery.

Pause the video and enjoy doing task B, embedding images and objects into your impasto surface.

Restart the video when you've completed task B.

How did it go? I hope you really enjoyed picking things that are special to you, and maybe to someone else, maybe not, but establishing your identity through image and embedded objects.

We've got Izzy and Jun here who are looking at this artwork together.

I wonder if you had some of the similar experiences to them while they were doing their making.

Izzy says, "I pressed a shell into my paste because it reminds me of visiting the seaside with my family.

If someone didn't know me, they might guess that the coast is an important place for me." Jun says, "I chose a piece of pattern fabric because it's similar to the clothes my grandma wears.

The pattern shows part of my family's culture without using any words or pictures." This is a really interesting way to work as an artist, that you are sharing your thoughts and feelings in quite an abstract way and encouraging people to look closely at something that you've made to see if they can find clues to your identity, who you are in the world and clues to your lived experience, a knowledge of another culture and another place.

Well done for all your incredible hard work in creating your impasto art.

Right, we're ready for the end of our lesson.

The summary of layers and symbols, surface, texture and identity.

Well done for your hard work.

You've worked really hard this lesson.

We thought about how thick texture can show emotion and link to a place and looked at the work of Teresa Webber.

Embedding personal objects and images can also become symbols of our identity, and you made amazing artwork thinking about who you are in the world, what's of interest to you or says something about you and creating some artwork that has a bit of mystery to it, has a, an unknown, and then we did thinking and making, thinking about material surfaces and patterns and how they can carry cultural or spiritual meaning.

I hope you had fun and enjoyed the lesson, and I look forward to sharing another art lesson with you again soon.

Bye-bye for now.