Key Stage

KS2 (ENG), KS2 (NI), CfE L2 (SCO), PS3 (WAL)
Art term

Figurative art, Visual literacy, Portraiture, Scottish art and artists
Created by

The Superpower of Looking
Topics

Children, Streets and squares, Trade and commerce, Daily life

National Curriculum for England

Art and design
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms
- Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

Northern Ireland Curriculum

Art and design
- Look at and talk about the work of artists, designers and craftsworkers from their own and other cultures; appreciate methods used in the resource materials and use their appreciation to stimulate personal ideas and engage with informed art making
- Develop their understanding of the visual elements of colour, tone, line, shape, form, space, texture and pattern to communicate their ideas
- Evaluate their own and others’ work and how it was made, explain and share their ideas, discuss difficulties and review and modify work to find solutions

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

Art and design
- I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual elements and concepts (EXA 2-03a)
- Through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum, I can create images and objects which show my awareness and recognition of detail (EXA 2-04a)
- Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design (EXA 2-05a)
- I can respond to the work of artists and designers by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others' work (EXA 2-07a)

National Curriculum for Wales (2008)

Art and design
- Describe and make comparisons between their own work and that of others
- Experiment with and examine the methods used by other artists from different periods, places and cultures
- Evaluate the methods and results of their own work and that of their fellow pupils
- Pupils should be stimulated and inspired by: other artists; methods and processes; media; styles; ideas
- Explore, experiment with and apply the elements of the visual, tactile and sensory language of art, craft and design which include: line, tone, colour, pattern, texture, shape and form

New Curriculum for Wales (2022)

Expressive Arts

Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.

Progression step 3:

- I can explore the effects that a range of creative techniques, materials, processes, resources, tools and technologies have on my own and others' creative work.

- I can explore how creative work can represent, document, share and celebrate personal, social and cultural identities.

- I can explore and describe how artists and creative work communicate mood, feelings and ideas and the impact they have on an audience.

Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.

Progression step 3:

- I can give and consider constructive feedback about my own creative work and that of others, reflecting on it and making improvements where necessary.

- I can apply knowledge and understanding of context, and make connections between my own creative work and creative work by other people and from other places and times.

- I can reflect upon how artists have achieved effects or communicated moods, emotions and ideas in their work.

Two Children 1963

Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)

Glasgow Life Museums

About this resource

This is one of the lessons in The Superpower of Looking on portraits. It focuses on Two Children, painted in 1963 by Joan Eardley.

These resources are also in the 'portraits' theme:

How to use this resource

To teach this lesson, download the teachers' notes on a separate device or print them off. Have this webpage open on your screen or whiteboard and use the prompts in the teachers' notes to guide your students through the lesson.

Contextual background for teachers

Two Children (1963)
Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)

Medium: oil and collage on canvas
Dimensions: H 134.7 x W 134.7 cm

The children who played on the streets of Glasgow became popular subject matter for Joan Eardley, whose studio was in Townhead, in the city's East End. Her favourite models, two girls from the neighbouring Samson family, are the focus of this work.

Eardley makes use of collage within this oil painting, adding foil sweet wrappers and scraps of newspaper to the canvas – found items you might expect to encounter on the city streets. Stencilled letters give the impression of a city environment, referencing signs of local businesses such as the 'metal scrap store' near her studio; the red background was inspired by the store's paintwork. This painting was left unfinished on her easel in 1963.

Art theme: portraits

A portrait is an artwork that depicts a specific individual. Initially, portraiture primarily consisted of paintings of the rich and powerful who had commissioned the work, but the genre has grown to depict a wider range of subjects over time and has been further democratised by photography. The term 'portrait' can also refer to an artwork's layout being taller than it is wide, as opposed to a landscape, which is the opposite.

Look, describe and discuss

Open a full-screen version of the zoomable image in a new window.

Ask your students to describe the artwork, encouraging them to simply say what they can see.

You can start by showing the whole image, and then use the zoom feature to explore details of the painting. Or you might like to start by using the zoom feature to show a detail from the image, and then zoom out to see more.

Encourage your students to look carefully – this is their superpower! It's best to not give too much background information about the artwork at this stage, so students can develop their own ideas and opinions.

An audio description of the painting is available. It is accompanied by a full written transcript which can also be used to describe the painting.

Nudge questions

Now when looking at the painting, ask more specific ('nudge') questions:

What do you notice about the girls in the artwork?
Can you find any clues that this is a city environment?
Can you spot any words in the artwork? Why do you think the artist has included these?
What might you be able to smell and hear if you were transported into the artwork?

Watch this video

In this video, artist Sarah Graham uses her own 'Superpower of Looking' to explore Two Children at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Ask your students these questions before watching the video to support close looking and listening:

Did Sarah see anything you hadn't spotted yet?
What else did you notice about the painting when watching the film?
Sarah suggests the girl on the left is covering her mouth because she's done something cheeky! Do you agree?
She says the children tell a story: what might it be?

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Questions from The Superpower of Looking Kit

Now we can start to explore the 'elements' of the painting.

For this artwork, you will focus on:

Ask your students to evidence their points:

where exactly are they looking when they make a statement?
can everybody see what they see?
slow down, take time to really look closely

You can introduce knowledge from the contextual background for teachers while asking these bespoke questions with helpful responses which can be found in the teachers' notes.

Two Children 1963

Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)

Glasgow Life Museums

Composition

Where are our eyes led first? (Tip: try squinting, it really helps!) Are we made to focus on anything in particular?
Is colour used compositionally in the work?
Can you see any shapes in the picture, and are any of these shapes used more than once? If so, why?

Colour

What range of colours has the artist used? In other words, what is their colour palette?
Has the artist used colour descriptively, as we see it in nature (the real world) or expressively and non-naturalistically?
Is the painting modelled to create a realistic three-dimensional effect or is it flat, using colour in blocks, to create a two-dimensional effect?

Figures

How would you describe the expression of each figure? What might this tell us about them?
Do the figures' poses or gestures show us what they are thinking or feeling?
Do the figures' poses or gestures direct our gaze anywhere? Does gesture create movement or a sense of direction on the canvas?

Everyone learning

You can find out more about The Superpower of Looking SEND/ASD/ALN/ASN approach on the Superpower homepage.

Now it's time to explore the artwork in different ways. This list of sensory activities encourages students to apply their learning and can suit a variety of learning needs.

Make

We suggest creative activities for all learners, including a tactile option to support students with vision impairment: these activities explore the tactile qualities of materials or involve gestural mark-making to further explore the artwork.

Create a collage about the town, city or village where you live. You might want to collect things such as sweet wrappers and found images from newspapers and magazines. Or you might want to go for a local walk to collect fallen treasures – such as plants and flowers – and to photograph the things you find. You could include people and animals in your collages too.
Tactile option: Create a tactile portrait of yourself and a friend, using tissue paper and PVA glue on a sheet of thick cartridge paper. Use your hands to shape the paper into faces, bodies and clothing. You could roll up pieces of paper to make buttons, or twist them to make hair. How many different shapes can you make with this single material?

Experience

Listen to the audio description of the painting.

Gather objects related to the artwork and explore them with all your senses: foil and sweet wrappers, torn pieces of different papers including newspaper, scraps of fabric of different textures and patterns, stencils with paper and pencils.
In groups of three, try to copy the poses of the girls: one student acts as director. Can you get the angle of the feet right?!

Communicate

This is an unfinished painting. With a partner, discuss what elements you think might be unfinished and why. What do you think the artist would have put in those areas?
Learn the Makaton sign for 'girl'.

Final stage: review

Ask your students to:

share their sketchbooks in groups and discuss the 'elements' they have identified
choose an element/aspect they find most interesting about the artwork and record it in their sketchbooks
choose their own name/s for the title of the artwork
think of a question they would like to ask the artist

Congratulations!

You have now completed this lesson resource on The Superpower of Looking.

There are more resources in this theme to try – have a look at the 'next lessons' section below.

Vincent van Gogh, a selfie and a bandaged ear

Queen Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada

David Hockney paints his parents

Lubaina Himid's portrait of a tailor

National Galleries Scotland: Joan Eardley

Glasgow Life Museums: Kate Downie on 'finishing' an unfinished painting

The Guardian: The Samson girls

Joan Eardley biography

Joan Eardley's poignant painting, 'Two Children' 16 November 2023, Joanna Meacock
Write on Art: 'Children and Chalk Wall 3' by Joan Eardley 1 September 2021, Aoife Hogan
'Kate Downie: Conversations with Joan' at Glasgow Women's Library 6 December 2024, Aimee Murphy
Joan Eardley: an intensity of expression 16 March 2021, Jan Patience
Artists and tenements: depicting the foundation of urban life in Scotland 11 December 2023, Gabriella Bennett
Joan Eardley: painting inner-city Glasgow and the rugged landscapes of Catterline 5 March 2020, Patrick Elliott