Painting: Still Life — Year 4 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Art and Design KS2 — To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including painting, with a range of materials; to know about great artists and the historical development of their art forms.
Overview
Pupils study the still-life tradition in Western painting, from the Dutch Golden Age to Cezanne's Post-Impressionist innovations. They arrange their own still-life compositions and develop observational painting skills, focusing on colour mixing, tonal contrast and compositional balance. The unit develops the ability to look intently and translate observations into paint with increasing accuracy and personal expression.
Learning Objectives
- To know about the still-life tradition in painting and the work of Paul Cezanne
- To arrange a still-life composition and make compositional decisions about placement and lighting
- To mix tertiary colours and use tonal contrast to create a sense of form and depth
- To evaluate own painting against the original subject and the work of still-life artists
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show pupils a range of still-life paintings: a Dutch Golden Age painting, a Cezanne Apples composition and a contemporary still life. Discuss: what objects are shown? How has the artist arranged them? Why might artists choose to paint objects? Pupils handle the objects on the class still-life table and take turns arranging them.
Demonstrate how to begin a still-life painting: sketch in light pencil the main shapes and check proportions before applying any paint. Mix a background tone first. Show how to mix tertiary colours by combining adjacent primary and secondary colours on the palette. Demonstrate painting the lightest areas first and building up to the darkest shadows.
Pupils complete a colour-mixing test card (six tertiary colours) and a tonal study of a single object in three tones: highlight, midtone and shadow. They then begin their still-life painting, blocking in main colour areas. Teacher asks: where is the light coming from? How does that affect the colour of the shadow?
Pupils develop the painting by adding detail, refining edges and strengthening tonal contrast. They are encouraged to paint what they can see rather than what they think an object looks like. Final additions include highlights (small amounts of white added to the brightest point of each object).
Pupils place their painting next to the still-life arrangement. Ask: how has the arrangement changed between the start and end? What would Cezanne say? Peer evaluation using three questions: strong colour, clear composition and visible light source.
Common Misconceptions
- Pupils often paint objects as flat shapes of a single colour rather than observing tonal variation — direct them to squint at the subject to see light and dark areas more clearly
- Many pupils rush to add dark shadows with black paint, creating lifeless results — teach that shadows often contain reflected colour and should be mixed from the object colour plus a darker hue
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Watercolour techniques and observational painting from Year 3
- Colour mixing including tints and shades from Year 2
- Observational drawing using tonal shading from the Year 3 Drawing with Observation unit
Want a personalised version of this lesson?
Use Staffroom to generate a complete lesson plan tailored to your class — add context about ability, recent learning, or specific pupils and get a plan ready to teach. Free trial, no card required.