What is painting?
Painting is something everyone can do, from Known about by lots of people. artists to children in school - even babies can do finger painting.
Paintings are often made with paints in different colours.
Paintbrushes are usually used to make paintings. But sometimes painters use other tools such as sponges and even fingers.
A group of artists called expressionist painters use painting to show their feelings.
How can you use the word 'painting' in a sentence?
The word painting can be used as a verb (a doing or action word), e.g. The artist was painting her self-portrait.
The word painting can also be used as a noun to talk about the piece of art painted by the artist, e.g. The painting was hanging in a gallery.
Useful tools used by painters
Watch how to make expressionist paintings
Find out what painting is and all the different ways to do it with Oliver Jeffers
Oliver Jeffers: We're going to have some fun, making a mess, doing some painting!
Painting is putting wet colours onto a surface to create a picture.
You can use paintbrushes of course, but you can also use sponges, or rollers or even your fingertips!
So, expressionism is painting to show how you feel about something, rather than what it looks like, and you can use whatever colours you like to express yourself and of course with expressionism it doesn't have to look like anything in particular.
So, I'm going to make a map of my favourite park and use different colours for different parts of the park to show how I feel when I'm there!
So, I'll start by sketching the park out using my pencil.
My park is kind of, there's a curvy bit there, and then it comes down straight and then goes like that.
Now I'm going to add some colours in. What colours do you think you guys are going to use?
Tida: I'm going to use purple because it makes me feel excited.
Brody: I think I will use light blue because it makes me happy.
Oliver Jeffers: Alright, happy and excited, those are two good feelings to go to the park. So I'm going to have a go.
I also get excited when I go to the park so I'm going to do my entrance as orange. I think that's a really good choice of colour for that.
We'll put the playground over here and that's the most fun part, especially when you're flying down the slide.
So I'm going to do that really bright green because it makes me feel energetic and also makes me feel happy to see other people out there walking their dogs in the park and when I go for a walk, so I'll paint all the paths yellow.
Great, that's my painting. It's an expressionist painting of my park.
So, it doesn't actually look anything like my park, but that's the joy of expressionist painting. It shows how I feel.
So, let's see yours. Aw this is great, it looks like a machine! Wow.
And this is terrific, I love these flowers going on.
I bet you can find loads of different places and even people to paint using different colours for each feeling! So, why don't you have a go?
Examples of expressionist paintings
Image caption, 'The Seasons' by Lee Krasner (1958)
Lee Krasner was an American painter but she also made many collages (art made by cutting and sticking materials). Her paintings were often very large and colourful. She said she wanted her paintings to look like they were alive. You could try and make paintings that look like they are alive too. © The Pollock - Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023.
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Using colours and brush marks to express your feelings
Select the primary colours (yellow, red and blue) and put them onto a Something artists use to put their paints on. You can use an old container or a paper plate.
See what happens when you mix the two primary colours together. You can practise on a piece of scrap paper to check the colours you can make.
See if you can make the secondary colours (green, purple and orange).
Once you’ve made colours, decide which ones make you feel happy, sad, excited or sleepy.
Choose some other feelings and see if you can make colours that match them.
Choose a brush or a few brushes to paint with.
Choose colours and The way you make marks with your paintbrush. to show how you feel and paint your expressionist painting.
Your expressionist painting does not have to look like anything in particular. It may even look a bit messy.
There is no right or wrong way to paint your feelings - it's all about how you feel.
You could ask someone to look at your painting and try to guess how you were feeling when you made it.
Activity
Did you know?
The painting called The Scream was made by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. It is one of the most famous expressionist paintings.
The character in the front looks like they are screaming. It was even the inspiration for the screaming emoji.
Edvard Munch created several versions of this painting and pop artist Andy Warhol also reproduced 'The Scream' in a screen print.
It also appeared on Norwegian stamps in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Munch's birth.
The painting called The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh from 1889, is another example of Expressionism. Notice the swirling brushstrokes. On the cypress tree, the brushstrokes bend with the curve of the branches.
Van Gogh painted this from his window when he was staying in a hospital.
The view is not totally accurate so Van Gogh must have used his imagination.
Quiz
Glossary
Here are the meanings of some important words.
Brushstrokes - The way you make marks with your paintbrush.
Famous - Known about by lots of people.
Palette - Something artists use to put their paints on.
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