Discover London Art: Paul Peel

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Discover London Art provided tools for teaching Visual Arts in the classroom. The stories were intended to be the starting point for a conversation. It was an explicit objective of our project to promote a collective experience; the children were expected to engage with the content both individually and as a group. The activity guides included resources for a dialogue, and also the preparation for a field trip to the museum. By creating and feeding expectations in relation to the Museum tour, Discover London Art contributed to prepare the children to better understand and enjoy the artworks in the permanent collection.

Paul Peel, The Wreck, 1884, oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Richard Bland, London, Ontario, 1933. Museum London.

The project involved editorial and visual research, as well as working in collaboration with other museums and archival institutions.

View of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (118-126 North Broad Street), built 1872-1876 under the designs of architects Furness & Hewitt. The Academy was established by subscription membership in 1805 and moved to the Broad and Cherry Streets location in 1876. The Library Company of Philadelphia.
Robert and Marguerite Peel c. 1890. Western Archives Regional Photograph Collection. Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries, Western University.

The digital activities were organized around the learning expectations of the Ontario Visual Arts Curriculm, involving  the study of Elements and Principles, for instance:

Paul Peel, Autumn Leaves, 1881. Oil on canvas. Purchased with Funds from the Volunteer Committee, the Estate of Miss Dorothy Gunn, a Donation in Memory of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Dixon Isaacs given by their son, Mr.James D. Candler, 1986 and conserved by The Canadian Conservation Institute of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Museum London.

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN: LINE

Line is an element of design. It is defined as the visual path left by a moving point; also, a mark, guide, or boundary that leads the eye in an artwork.

Lines are also used to build perspective. In traditional painting, three-dimensional objects are represented on a two-dimensional surface. Lines are one of the elements that are used to create the illusion of height, width. depth, and distance.

Autumn Leaves is an example of one-point perspective. There is a single vanishing point – one point at which the lines appear to converge.

Paul Peel, The Covent Garden Market, London, Ontario, 1883, oil on canvas. Gift to the City of London by Mrs. Marjorie Barlow, London, Ontario, 1969. Museum London.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN: EMPHASIS

In Covent Garden Market, Paul Peel used diagonal lines to create the illusion of perspective.

These diagonal lines converge on a vanishing point.

We don’t see the vanishing point – it is not within the frame – but the artist imagined its position when he was drawing the sketch for this painting.