@The Arts Unit Creative Classes

Inspire me ... seascape art

Using stimulus material to inspire art and music

Student music and visual arts resource developed by The Arts Unit

Year 3 to Year 6 music and visual arts

What will I learn?

You will:

  • learn about plastics in the ocean and what oceanographers have learnt

  • discover what a seascape artwork is

  • create an artwork based on a seascape and plastic waste

  • extend your artmaking skills through animation.

Before you begin

You will need:

  • paper, pencils, paint, paintbrush, textas (drawing and coloured pencils)

  • scissors and glue

  • small plastic objects to add to your artwork

  • phone or camera to record.

  1. Reflect

In January 1992, the cargo ship 'Ever Laurel' was caught in a North Pacific storm, spilling overboard several 12-metre containers holding 28,800 duck bath toys. The ducks have since scattered and washed up on beaches all over the globe and even been sold on eBay. Scientists and oceanographers have studied their travels and been able to better understand ocean currents, wind patterns and ocean debris. Journalists, writers, artists have also shown much interest.

Many people have used this event as inspiration for their creation of artwork and music.

  • Australian artist, Matthew Quick, was inspired by this incident to create his 'Intrepid Travellers' artwork in 2011.

  • Australian composer, Katy Abbott, also used the true events as the catalyst for her musical work 'Introduced Species'.


Watch the 2 videos to learn more about this unfortunate event.

When thousands of rubber ducks were accidentally dumped into the ocean

Duration: 00:49

Ducks overboard!

Duration 02:54

Complete the following questions:

  • How would you react to seeing thousands of rubber ducks floating past you on the ocean?

  • What weather do you think the rubber ducks endured floating on the ocean?

  • What was the fate of the plastic ducks? Swallowed by a whale? Captured by an octopus? Rescued by a mermaid? Let your imagination float! List the possibilities.

  • What impact does our plastic waste have on the environment?

2. Discover

If an artwork was created of the ducks floating in the ocean, it would be called a seascape.

Matthew Quick's artwork 'Intrepid Travellers' is an example of a scape, specifically a seascape, which is then represented in Katy Abbott's 'Introduced Species' soundscape.

  • A scape refers to a wide view of a place, often one represented in an image. It can include a landscape, seascape, or cityscape.

  • A soundscape is an atmosphere or environment created by or with sound.

Elements of a seascape artwork

A scape artwork includes 3 elements:

  • foreground: the bottom third of the scape

  • midground: the middle third of the scape

  • background: the top third of the scape

Seascape labeling the foreground, midground and background of sand, water and sky

Here are some examples of different scapes from NSW public school students from Operation Art and the Nagoya Art Exchange.

Identify the foreground, midground and background in each of the artworks.

Landscape

Discovering Uluru

Marie Ssa KaiBankstown Senior College Nagoya Art Exchange
Landscape student artwork of Uluru and surrounding desert

Landscape studies

Jana Bansemer Nepean Creative and Performing Art High SchoolNagoya Art Exchange
Landscape student artwork of green paddock with scattered trees and a blue sky

Seascape

At the sea

Alyssa Hamersma Nepean Creative and Performing Art High SchoolNagoya Art Exchange
Seascape student artwork with calm water and sand with rocks

Reflections on Lake Mulwala

Bella O'TooleCorowa Public SchoolOperation Art
Seascape student watercolour artwork of a reflective lake and bare trees

Cityscape

Coming or going

Shah Ahmed Penrith High SchoolNagoya Art Exchange
Cityscape student print black and white artwork of buildings and streets

Look on the bright side

Tristan Stanko Elizabeth Macarthur High School Operation Art
Cityscape student artwork of various buildings and a bridge in the foreground

3. Create

Now it is time for you to create a seascape artwork.

Listen to Katy Abbott's 'Introduced Species' symphony performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra while you create your seascape.

This music was created within the project Introduced Species 360. This collaboration between The Arts Unit and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra saw six 360 cameras embedded into the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's performance of Introduced Species to give the viewer a unique and immersive experience of the performance.

Introduced Species concert

Duration: 21:10

Step 1: Use a larger sheet of paper and your pencils and follow the next instructions to create your own seascape artwork.

Draw on your paper the foreground of your seascape. It may be rocks, sand or waves.

seascape foreground of sand only

Draw on your paper the midground of your seascape.

seascape foreground and midground of sand and water

Draw on your paper the background of your seascape.

seascape including the foreground, midground and background of sand, water and sky of sand only

Tips for your artwork:

  • When colouring, work from the background of your seascape forward to the foreground of your artwork as this makes it easier to join the sections of the composition by overlapping the colour.

  • You can use crayons, coloured pencils, textas, paint, or charcoal to colour your seascape.

Step 2: Add plastic waste to your seascape representing objects that are not normally found in this environment, like the rubber ducks were in the ocean.

You can use anything you can find that you are allowed to use as 'trash' to paste on top of your seascape.

Items you could use that do not belong in the ocean:

  • food wrappers

  • plastic or cardboard items like straws or bottle tops

  • old small plastic toys

  • Supermarket giveaway toys.

Seascape student artwork with calm water and sand with rocks with added trash scattered over the sand and rocks, as well as in the water

Save the sea turtles

Felicity Adams Lethbridge Park Public SchoolOperation Art 2017
Student artwork of turtle in the water with message 'We all agree save the sea!'

Share your seascape artwork or display it for your teacher and others to see.

Congratulations on saving some plastic from our oceans – remember to recycle and dispose of your rubbish correctly.

A day at the beach

Clovelly Public SchoolOperation Art 2013
Student artwork of two swimmers in the water at the beach with sand and town in background

4. Extend

There are many ways to create images to music.

Year 9 student, Ben Chubb, created this animation to one of the movements of 'Introduced Species' as part of an animation challenge.

Ben said, "the fluttering and twinkling in the music made me picture the movement of butterflies, and I had heard of a colony of migrating butterflies that could easily face extinction due to logging and pollution."

Create your own animation or series of images to a piece of music you love or use the excerpts from this class.

You could use PowerPoint or any other software to create your work.

Migrating Butterflies – Animation by Ben Chubb

Duration: 4:05

Congratulations!

You have completed this @ The Arts Unit Creative Class.

Third-party content attributions

  • Ocean waves with ducks image, screenshot from https://youtu.be/fjxLIMF2Fq0 - accessed 22/05/2020

  • Student artworks from Nagoya Art exchange program from The Arts Unit media library, reproduced and communicated with permission.

  • Student artworks from Operation Art program from The Arts Unit media library, reproduced and communicated with permission.

  • 'At the Sea' artwork with trash collage, used with permission from TAU library © Heather Williams, reproduced and communicated with permission. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, these images may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australia only.