Colour: Warhol and Pwerle
Colour in Art
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Colour in Art
Central thread: how artists use colour choices to create different effects. This lesson stays rooted in art by focusing on colour relationships, artist comparison, and a planned making task using repetition and pattern.
Our learning goal
I can use the colour wheel and compare how Andy Warhol and Minnie Pwerle use colour to help me create a repeated space-themed artwork.
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What words come to mind when you think of colour in art?
Use this to surface prior ideas such as bright, mood, rainbow, warm, cool, pattern, painting or contrast. Pick out any colour words students already know and link them to the lesson goal.
The colour wheel
The colour wheel shows how colours relate to each other.
Artists use it to choose colours for a mood or effect.
It helps us spot colour groups and colour pairs.
Keep this simple and visual for KS2. The key idea is that the colour wheel is a tool artists use to make colour choices, not just a chart to memorise.
Primary and secondary colours
Primary colours are red, yellow and blue.
These colours are used to mix other colours.
Secondary colours are orange, green and purple.
Secondary colours are made by mixing two primary colours.
If useful, quickly demonstrate one or two mixes aloud: red + yellow = orange, blue + yellow = green.
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Warm and cool colours
Warm colours include red, orange and yellow.
They can feel bright, sunny or energetic.
Cool colours include blue, green and purple.
They can feel calm, quiet or deep.
Link warm/cool to feeling in art, not temperature in real life. Students can connect this later to planets, stars and space backgrounds.
Complementary colours
Complementary colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel.
Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple are complementary pairs.
When placed together, they stand out strongly.
Artists use them to make work look bold and lively.
Emphasise visual contrast rather than colour theory detail. This slide prepares students for Warhol-inspired bright contrasts in their own grid.
Which pair are complementary colours?
Red and green
Red and orange
Blue and green
Yellow and orange
Tests whether students understand that complementary colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel. Distractors are nearby colours that children may confuse with a strong pair.
Colour words
The colour wheel helps artists choose colours for a mood or effect. Primary colours are red, yellow and blue. Complementary colours sit opposite each other and stand out strongly.
Echoes the wording from slides 2 to 5 and checks the key load-bearing terms from the first colour theory block.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was a Pop Art artist.
He often repeated the same image again and again.
He used bright, bold colours that grab attention.
Changing the colours made each repeated image feel new.
Keep the focus on form and expression: repetition, bold colour, strong contrast. Avoid drifting into a long biography.
Warhol's colour choices
Warhol often chose colours that do not look natural. A face, object or picture might be pink, green, yellow or blue. These bold choices make the artwork feel exciting, playful and easy to notice.
Stress that artists do not have to copy real-life colours. Warhol is a strong example of expressive, attention-grabbing colour.
Repetition and pattern
Repeating one image can create a pattern.
A grid makes the repeats look neat and organised.
Different colours in each section make the pattern more interesting.
This is useful for a space-themed Pop Art design.
This slide bridges artist study to making. Mention that students will use one planet image many times, then change colour combinations in each section.
What did Warhol repeat again and again?
One image
One line
One brush
One background
Checks the central Pop Art idea of repetition of the same image, not repeated marks or repeated tools.
Which word best matches Warhol's style here?
Bold
Calm
Natural
Quiet
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Warhol's style
Andy Warhol was a Pop Art artist. He often used bright colours and repeated the same image in a grid to make a pattern.
All three blanks are core terms from slides 6 to 8: Pop Art, bright colours and grid repetition.
Minnie Pwerle
Minnie Pwerle was an Aboriginal Australian artist.
Her paintings are known for energetic marks and flowing lines.
She used colour in an expressive way.
Her artworks can feel full of movement and rhythm.
Pronunciation may need support. Keep the focus on her artistic use of colour and marks. Avoid overclaiming detailed cultural meanings that are not in the plan.
Pwerle's expressive colour
Pwerle used colour to create feeling and energy.
Her colours can appear rich, lively and layered.
The colours work with repeated marks and lines.
The result feels expressive rather than realistic.
Clarify expressive means showing feeling, movement or energy through colour and marks instead of trying to look exactly real.
Warhol and Pwerle compared
Expressive colour choices
Energetic marks and lines
Repetition through painted marks
Artwork feels full of movement
Bold, bright colour blocks
Strong contrast
Repeated image in a grid
Pop Art style
Andy Warhol
Minnie Pwerle
This is the key comparison slide. Both artists use colour powerfully, but in different ways: Warhol through bold repeated images and Pwerle through expressive movement and marks.
What we can learn from both artists
Colour can be realistic or unrealistic.
Bright contrasts can make an image stand out.
Repetition can build pattern.
Expressive colour can add movement and feeling.
Artists make choices to create an effect.
This slide resolves the comparison and sets up the making choices students will use in their own work.
How is Pwerle's colour use described?
Expressive
Careful
Tiny
Plain
Checks the taught contrast: Pwerle's colour is expressive and full of energy rather than plain or realistic.
What is one key difference between the artists?
Warhol uses grids
Pwerle uses colour
Warhol makes marks
Pwerle is Pop Art
The correct answer points to Warhol's repeated image in a grid. The distractors reflect partial misunderstandings from the comparison slides.
How do Warhol and Pwerle use colour differently?
Expected elements: Warhol uses bold, bright, often unrealistic colours with repeated images in a grid. Pwerle uses expressive, lively, layered colour with energetic marks and movement. Students may mention both use repetition and colour powerfully.
Pop Art Planets
Introduce the making outcome clearly: a repeated planet image arranged in an Andy Warhol-inspired grid, using bright contrasting colours and space as the theme.
Planning the artwork
Choose a simple planet shape or space image.
Repeat the same image in a grid.
Change the colours in each section.
Use bright contrasts
Make each planet stand out.
A simple shape works best because the focus is colour, repetition and pattern, not detailed drawing.
Painting and colour mixing
Mix colours to create new shades.
Try warm colours in one square and cool colours in another.
Use complementary colours for strong contrast.
Keep the planet shape repeated, but vary the colours.
This is where students apply colour wheel knowledge directly to art-making choices.
Pattern through repetition
Repeating the same planet image helps the artwork look connected. Changing the colours and backgrounds keeps the grid lively. The pattern comes from repetition, and the excitement comes from colour choice.
Useful wording for teacher modelling: same shape, different colours, repeated layout.
Printing options
The repeated planet can be painted by hand.
It can also be printed to make the same shape several times.
Printing helps keep the image repeated clearly.
Paint can then be added in different colour combinations.
Do not turn this into a technical printmaking lesson. The main point is that printing is one option for repeating the same image.
Making colour choices for space
A dark background can make bright planets glow.
Warm colours can suggest heat, light or energy.
Cool colours can suggest night, distance or calm.
Contrasting colours make the space theme look bold.
Keep this rooted in art effect and mood. The aim is not scientific accuracy about planets, but thoughtful visual choices.
What should stay the same in the planet grid?
The planet shape
The paint brush
The background size
The colour mix
Checks that repetition comes from keeping the same image or shape while changing colours.
Making the artwork
In the Pop Art Planets artwork, you repeat the same planet image in a grid. Bright contrasts help each section stand out, and a dark background can make the planets glow.
Uses the exact making language from slides 13 to 18: repeated planet, grid and bright contrasts.
Which colours would you choose for your planet grid?
Expected elements: students might suggest warm colours for heat or energy, cool colours for calm or distance, complementary colours for bold contrast, and dark backgrounds to make planets glow. Accept any choice linked to effect or mood.
What is one thing you learned about colour today?
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What helped you understand the artists best?
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What part of this lesson felt trickiest?
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Glossary
colour wheel - a chart that shows how colours relate to each other
primary colours - red, yellow and blue, used to mix other colours
secondary colours - colours made by mixing two primary colours
warm colours - colours such as red, orange and yellow
cool colours - colours such as blue, green and purple
complementary colours - colours opposite each other on the colour wheel
contrast - a strong difference between colours
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Glossary
Pop Art - an art style that often uses bold images and bright colours
repetition - using the same shape or image again and again
pattern - repeated shapes, lines or colours in an organised way
grid - a layout of rows and columns
expressive - showing feeling or energy through art
colour mixing - combining colours to make new ones
printing - making repeated images from one shape or design
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