Warm and cool colours are useful groupings, not fixed feelings

Invite children to compare palettes and explain their own choices for an imagined scene. Familiar conventions can support discussion while leaving room for different associations and interpretations among makers and viewers.

Discuss colour effects as possibilities rather than rules about feelings. A maker's explanation can differ from a viewer's first interpretation.

Ask what this palette does in this picture

Compare groupings. Test an arrangement. Explain its effect.

A maker may use cool hues for an imagined underwater scene.

Colour associations are not universal feelings. What did the maker intend?

Label swatches with words.

Resources

• Free Elements of Art Worksheet for Kids – Shape, Line, Color, Value, Space, Form & Texture — Use the element vocabulary as a reference while children make their own visual choices.

Further reading

• National Gallery of Australia — learning resources

Read next

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