Art theme: still life

Historically, 'still life' was a category of painting typically featuring objects such as fruit, flowers, insects and/or countless collectables. Some objects were invested with symbolic value, e.g. the flower can be a metaphor of life and death – beautiful in bloom, but quick to fade. Paintings were traditionally small in scale to hang in people's homes rather than in public spaces.

In recent times, still life appears in art in various forms from the abstracted (simplified but still recognisable) to the entirely abstract (not recognisable as anything in reality, but perhaps reduced to its essential shape or basic form). Still life can even be represented in the form of the 'found object' (an actual vase or table, etc.) and assembled and documented to become 'art'.

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 to listen to. 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 these flowers? Have they been painted to look realistic or not?
• Are all the flowers perfect?
• Can you spot anything other than flowers?
• What might you be able to smell and hear if you were transported into the painting?

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 the following areas from The Superpower of Looking Kit:

• Composition
• Colour
• Light

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.

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.

• Head outside to collect some leaves and flowers. Try flower pressing to create students' own floral compositions. You might like to use these flower pressing ideas from the Natural History Museum. Alternatively, try Hapa zome printing, an ancient Japanese technique to transfer the dyes from flowers and leaves onto fabric.
• Tactile option: make a giant papier mâché flower! Inflate a balloon and stand it in a bowl to keep it steady (use tape if necessary). Use brightly coloured tissue paper to make petals, and plenty of PVA glue to overlap them around the top half of the balloon. When dry, pop the balloon, and use a pipe cleaner as a stem. Invite your students to make a flower arrangement with their papier mâché flowers.

Experience

• Listen to the audio description of the painting.

• Make a multi-sensory floral arrangement using fragrant flowers and herbs, such as roses, carnations and lavender. You might find examples of flowers with different types of scent, such as tansy or curry plant. You could even focus on the formal elements of Colour (create an arrangement with warm/cool colours) or Composition (deliberately symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangements). 

Communicate

• Write a story about the experience of being a bulb underground and growing into a tulip flower. Describe what you are sensing at the different stages of your life.
• Learn the Makaton sign for 'flower'.

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.