Using the outdoor environment to inspire art and design

What’s the idea?

Nature has inspired artists since the beginning of time, and if we reflect on the earliest artforms such as cave paintings, we can see artists using everyday resources to leave their mark on the world. Engaging children in observing their environment encourages them to behave just like artists do. Any adult or older sibling can support them to observe their world (Tutchell, 2014). This guide aims to inspire you to use the outdoor environment on your doorstep to stimulate, motivate and enable your pupils to create artworks.

What does it mean?

Encouraging children to engage with the outside environment is important. Porter (2018) suggests learning outdoors can increase children’s motivation, resilience and engagement. Exploring the environment for art also enables pupils to understand that learning can occur beyond the digital world, classroom or art gallery.

Land art is an art movement that is all about observing the environment and sculpting the landscape to create forms, or using natural found materials to create installations. Land art has been recognised since about the 1960s, and the work of artists such as Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy and Nancy Holt can be referred to as inspiration.

An installation brings a range of materials together – natural objects, in this case – to create an artwork set within a landscape. Often with Land art, installations have a transient nature similar to nature itself – often changing quickly after creation. Using Land art, children can consider the landscapes they visit regularly and the everyday objects they ome across. Children can develop their art skills through observations of the environment; looking at colour, form, line or pattern, to inform expressive artistic responses (Eisner, 2002). Children can be encouraged to capture these observations through drawing in a sketchbook or journal, or through conversations with an adult (Gregory, March and Tutchell 2020).

Equally we might refer to the work of artist Raku Inoue, a contemporary multidisciplinary artist who uses flowers, leaves and stems to create intricate works of art inspired by beasts, beetles and beautiful colours. This enables children to see artists creating more permeant creations, having located items to bring back into the creating space. A camera might be used record and capture the work if installed in the landscape or transient in nature.

How does it work in practice?

When observing our environment and learning through art and design, it is useful to support children to scaffold their thinking and the creative process. This can be achieved through building observation skills and awareness of the environment. Encourage children to first focus on one particular aspect such as observations of forms, colours or patterns. They could make a simple viewfinder from a piece of paper or their hands, then hunt patterns, colours and forms in the landscape.

Children could find items in the environment of one particular colour, such as different shades of green or brown – colour schemes can be altered depending on location, time of year or children’s interests. Encourage children to observe the flora, rocks and trees around them – this is key to understanding the resources they might use to create their own installations.

They can combine these objects to develop a realistic image, as in the work of Raku Inoue, or develop a pattern or change in the landscape more like the work of Richard Long. Artistic inspiration is important. This could come from looking at artists’ work, the natural landscape, or the emotional response the environment evokes for the individual. It is key that it is personal to the child and an expression of how the landscape speaks to them.

Want to know more?

• Eisner E (2002) The Arts and the Creation of the Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Gregory P, March C and Tutchell S (2020) Mastering Primary Art and Design. London: Bloomsbury.
• Porter H (2018) Education Outside: Curriculum-outdoor learning ideas for Primary teachers. London: Bloomsbury.
• Tutchell S (2014) Young Children as Artists. Abingdon: Routledge.

If you would like to read more on developing art and design ideas, you might like to read Mastering Primary Art and Design by Gregory, March and Tutchell (2020).

If you want to consider aspects relating to learning outdoors you might visit the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (www.lotc.org.uk). And www.tate.org.uk has a raft of images by suggested artists in this guide, and explanations to support adults working with pupils.