ART FROM FINLAND: The human figure in the Romantic nationalism

We first searched for information on Pekka Halonen’s life and art by reviewing a few of his works of art. I also had some art books to show the pupils in the classroom. I asked them what they thought Pekka Halonen wanted to depict in his works. The pupils said that in their opinion he depicted nature and ordinary people doing their everyday chores. In the next phase the pupils took digital pictures of themselves alone or with a friend in which both these elements were supposed to be visible. Then we drew a human body to scale. After that each pupil made a water colour painting based on the digital pictures (Pekka Halonen used mainly oil painting techniques, but we cannot use oil colours in school). The pupils focused on painting very intensely.