Painting: Landscapes (Year 5) — Year 5 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Art and Design KS2 — To improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including painting; to know about great artists and the historical and cultural development of their art forms.
Overview
Pupils investigate the rich tradition of landscape painting from Constable's English countryside to the Impressionist innovations of Monet and the expressive energy of Van Gogh's landscapes. They develop personal approaches to painting en plein air-style studies in the school environment before developing a large-scale studio painting. The unit builds technical skill in mark-making, colour and composition whilst encouraging personal artistic voice.
Learning Objectives
- To know about the Impressionist tradition in landscape painting, with specific reference to Monet and Van Gogh
- To develop mark-making techniques in paint including dabs, swirls and palette knife work
- To compose and paint a landscape demonstrating understanding of foreground, midground and background
- To evaluate own work using specific art vocabulary and make improvements in response to evaluation
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show a sequence of landscape images: Constable's The Hay Wain, Monet's Haystacks series, Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Crows. Ask: how has the approach to landscape changed? Focus on brushwork: what marks has each artist made? Show a video clip of a painter working plein air. Introduce the unit plan: outdoor study, then studio development.
Outdoors or using a projected outdoor photograph: demonstrate how to establish a horizon line and decide on the proportion of sky to land. Show how to use different brush techniques: horizontal strokes for a flat field, curved strokes for foliage, short dabs for texture, directional marks for wind in grass (Van Gogh-inspired). Demonstrate adding paint with a palette knife for texture.
Pupils take their sketchbooks outdoors and make two rapid landscape sketches (5 minutes each) using pencil and colour notes. Back inside, they make a small experimental painting on card using Van Gogh-inspired directional marks, focusing on texture and energy rather than accuracy.
Pupils begin their larger landscape painting, establishing the composition and blocking in main colour areas. They are encouraged to use at least three different mark types and to create tonal contrast between foreground and background using aerial perspective (lighter, cooler tones in the distance).
Paintings are arranged on the floor. Pupils stand back and evaluate: does the foreground feel close? Does the background feel far away? Does the painting have energy and texture? Pupils mark their own painting against these three criteria and note one improvement for the next session.
Common Misconceptions
- Pupils often paint distant objects with the same bright, saturated colours as foreground objects, preventing the painting from having depth — introduce aerial perspective as a practical technique, not just a theory
- Some pupils use timid, small marks on large paper, resulting in weak, hesitant paintings — encourage large, confident marks by demonstrating with a wide brush loaded with paint
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Watercolour landscape techniques from Year 3
- Knowledge of Impressionism from KS2 History or previous art units
- Colour mixing, tints and shades from Year 2 and Year 3
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