Sidney Nolan Art Study

This art and craft resource looks at the famous artist Sidney Nolan’s art and life. It includes a unit outline of activities, 11 activities with step-by-step instructions and links to his art.

 Year level: Years 3-6

 IMPORTANT: we cannot provide artworks in the resource as that would be a copyright infringement. You will have to display the artworks to the class yourself.

 Activity 1: Luna Park

Purpose: Students discover how Sidney Nolan painted places from his childhood memory and how he used dark black outlines.

Activity 2: Memories

Purpose: Students call on their own memories and create an artwork just like Sidney Nolan did.

Activity 3: Black Outlines

Purpose: Students use black lines to outline shapes found in the environment.

Activity 4: Warm or Cool?

Purpose: Students learn to recognise warm colours/colors such as reds, yellows and oranges and cool colours/colors such as blues and greens, and use them in their art.

Activity 5: Warm and cool

Purpose: Students USE warm and cool colours.

Activity 6: Perspective

Purpose: Students learn how Sidney Nolan used perspective and try out some of the strategies for themselves.

Activity 7: Ned Kelly

Purpose: Students learn about the famous Ned Kelly painting.

Activity 8: Exploring Fluidity

Purpose: Students learn that different mediums and painting surfaces do different things.

Activity 9: Landscape drawing with Ned Kelly

Purpose: Students create a landscape of their own for Ned Kelly to ride.

Activity 10: Design a Wanted poster

Purpose Fun activity just to link Ned Kelly. You can extend this activity by debating whether or not Ned Kelly was a hero or villain.

Activity 11: Aerial view

Purpose: Sidney Nolan did some bird’s eye view paintings of the landscapes. Students learn about bird’s eye views and create an artwork looking at an image or object from above. This is great to show how art can be created from different angles.

 Links to Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts

Years 3/4: Explore ideas and artworks from different cultures and times, including artwork by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to use as inspiration for their own representations ACAVAM110

Years 5/6: Explore ideas and practices used by artists, including practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, to represent different views, beliefs and opinions ACAVAM114