Painting

Painting – mixing colours to create a nebula

Mironov, A. (2016) The Rho Ophiuchi Clouds, Royal Museums Greenwich [Photograph]. Available at: http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/astronomy-photographer-gallery/overall-winner-2017 (Accessed: 27/10/17).

Teacher’s notes:

This photograph ‘The Rho Ophiuchi Clouds’ (a nebula – a cloud of dust and gases) was taken by astronomy photographer, Artem Mironov. It was taken over three nights through a telescope, at a farm in Namibia. This photo demonstrates a new perspective of the night’s sky, capturing the bright stars and textures. It has a three-dimensional feel to it and evokes emotions of mystery and wonder.

In the classroom, this photo can be used to introduce children to experimenting with mixing watercolours to create a space inspired painting. The teacher can encourage children to talk about the colours they see and what happens to the colours as we mix them (lighter/darker). This activity can be free and child-led as children can choose which colours they would like to mix, what size paper they would like (A3/A4) and how much water to use to dilute the paint.

Children can add stars to their watercolour background if they choose. One suggestion would be to flick paint onto the painting (using a scrubbing brush or paintbrush).

Activity: watercolour painting on paper. Children experimenting with diluting and mixing the paint.

Choices: size of paper, colours, water (dilution).

Learning Intention: I can explore what happens when mixing colours.

Key questions:

• What can you see in this photograph? What about the colours?
• Look closely at the colours, what do you notice? Are some of the colours mixed together? what happened to them? (created a new colour). (prompt them to notice how on one side the colours are darker – blue/purple, and on the right side the colours are lighter – yellow/orange/pink) Why do you think that is? Does anyone know what we might call these colours? (Warm/cool colours – point to the warm/cool tones)
• Do you notice anything spooky about this photo? What can you see in the centre/middle? (can you see a creature?/what might it be doing in space?)

Vocabulary:

• Clouds
• Colour
• Cool
• Dark
• Light
• Mixture
• Nebula (Although children are in Foundation Stage, can introduce the word with a very brief explanation. Ie. A cloud of dust in space is called a Nebula, get children to repeat the word back)
• Space
• Stars
• Warm