Learn about art making and the ideas and skills that make it happen. Creative cowboy education resource packs can be used in senior school, college or university. Resource packs include films, books and student projects.

Student projects

These student projects are to be used in conjunction with the JOHN WOLSELEY education resource pack.

Project resource notes

Create your own style of painting using some of the techniques and concepts described below. Throughout the material in the JOHN WOLSELEY education resource pack there are many examples about the way JOHN interprets the landscape. Here are some suggestions for ways in which students can create their own work using landscape and the environment in non traditional ways. You will need paper, water colour or acrylic paints, inks and paintbrushes (use large paintbrushes as well), charcoal and pens and pencils. Please remember to take care when collecting objects or working in the landscape, be sensitive to the environment and seek permission to collect material if you think this is required.

Students should seek organisational assistance from their teachers and discuss and plan projects sensitively, seek permission from the responsible government authorities, speak to the traditional landowners and other local people as this will give you a much deeper and richer insight in relation to developing your work and interpreting the place you are in.  All the following projects relate to making artwork inside and outside, we start by choosing an outdoor location, study the location carefully and then choose the textures of nature to help you start your project. Be spontaneous, as JOHN WOLSELEY would be, allowing nature to work with you as you make marks on paper using natural objects, taking rubbings of textures from these objects.

Outdoors – Experiment with water colour washes, again allowing the paint to work for you and then apply your marks from nature.

Indoors – students now have some exciting shapes and images on paper, they can now add the fine detail to complete the work. Think about using linocuts in creating your work. See if your library has a copy of the book about JOHN’s work John Wolseley: Landmarks II by Professor SASHA GRISHIN (ANU) published by Craftsman House (a division of Thames and Hudson). Landmarks II is an update of the original Landmarks and contains a wealth of new material covering the last ten years of John’s creative output. Landmarks II contains many images of JOHN’s work and tells us more about the artist’s life. Use the book in conjunction with the film The smokers have taken the gold to assist you in really getting to know JOHN and his work. Create a visual diary which you will use for notes and field drawings, you can also paste your essays from the following projects into your diary.

Project one Colour

Colour has played an important role in the development of Australian painting. The colours of the Australian bush are very different to those in the European landscape. Here is an opportunity to create your own visual diary, visit some nearby bush land and create your own colour palette of the landscape by matching the colours you have seen and creating your own colour swatches in your new diary.  Then visit your local gallery to compare the colours in early Australian landscape paintings with that of more recent Australian works by artists such as JOHN WOLSELEY, FRED WILLIAMS and WILLIAM DELAFIELD COOK. Then compare these paintings with European landscape paintings.  Use your findings to create a painting in two parts that contrasts the colours of the Australian bush with the colours in the European landscape. Make notes of your findings in your visual diary.

Project two Sound

Sometimes, when you study a JOHN WOLSELEY painting, you can almost hear the painting sing to you. Make a study to see how JOHN depicts the idea of sound in his paintings. Bird song may be one of the sounds of nature that JOHN wants to express in his work.  Write a brief essay describing how you can convey senses or emotions in a work of art.

Project three Forest

Using the techniques you have seen in the Smokers have taken the gold create a forest painting. Create a watercolour wash, do this in the forest or the park, be abstract but try to interpret what you see. Let the paint dry, now do your rubbings and markings. Document some of the smaller detail in the forest or park, take photos or do sketches for reference.  Take all your material back to the classroom and add the finer detail, the texture of living plants and animals to your painting. As you add the detail think carefully about the design and position of the images you are adding to the overall work. In the John Wolseley education resource pack, BETTY CHURCHER talks about the way in which JOHN drags his work along the desert floor and that there are often unintended marks, like footprints, on the work.  Do you think these additional and perhaps unintended markings matter, or do they add something to the work?

Project four Climate

Climate change and drought are now everyday news items, not only in Australia, but in many countries around the world. Choose a place in Australia and find out what impact changes to the local climate are having on the ecosystem.  Create a painting, using nature to help you create markings and patterns as described in Project three. Try to show what changing climate patterns are doing to the place you have chosen to depict. Your painting can be completely abstract or it can include small details of how you interpret the changes to the ecosystem that you have identified.

Project five Last chance to see

JOHN WOLSELEY is very concerned about birds, animals and plants becoming extinct. Much of JOHN’s work in some way reflects on this issue. In his book Last chance to see (Pan Macmillan) DOUGLAS ADAMS (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) visits places where endangered animals live. DOUGLAS also shared JOHN’s concerns and reflected these in his writing.  JOHN WOLSELEY may sometimes add written notes to his painting and prints. JOHN has kept a diary of his travels, extracts from JOHN’s diaries can be found in the John Wolseley Teachers Resource Book for extracts, recording experiences that can surface again in his artwork. JOHN WOLSELEY may also use drawings of maps in his paintings to depict place and time, in a similar way DOUGLAS ADAMS did this in his writings.  Do some research on endangered species. Using maps as a foundation for your painting (this can be as simple as outlines of countries) add images that depict threatened or extinct species. Add written notes to your painting about the findings of your research.

Almost exactly 20 years after DOUGLAS ADAMS’ original journey, STEPHEN FRY joins MARK CARWARDINE to investigate the fate of the animals visited by DOUGLAS and MARK in the earlier BBC series. Search the BBC website to find out more.

Write an essay on how you see JOHN WOLSELEY and DOUGLAS ADAMS sharing the same concerns about nature. Do the attitudes displayed by the Vogon Constructor Fleet (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) hold any parallels for our current environmental dilemmas?