The document provides definitions and examples of the words "earth", "fire", "air", and "water" as they relate to art. It explores the many meanings and interpretations these basic elements can have in artistic works. The elements are open to wide exploration and can inspire works that take the themes in any direction. Suggested artists are provided as starting points to spark ideas for how to represent the elements through different artistic styles and mediums.

2. There are many different
meanings for these words
and how they can be
interpreted in Art.

3. Earth
Noun
1.The planet on which we live; the world. "the diversity of life
on earth" Synonyms: world, globe, planet, sphere, orb
2. the substance of the land surface; soil. "a layer of earth"
Synonyms: soil, topsoil, loam, clay, silt, dirt, sod, clod, turf.
Verb
1.(British) connect (an electrical device) with the ground. "the
front metal panels must be soundly earthed"
2. Hunting drive (a fox) to its underground lair

4. Fire
Noun
1. a process in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the
air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke; combustion or
burning. "his house was destroyed by fire“
2. a burning sensation. "the whisky lit a fire in the back of his throat”
Verb
1. discharge a gun or other weapon in order to propel (a bullet or
projectile). "he fired a shot at the retreating prisoners" Synonyms: launch,
shoot, discharge, eject, hurl, throw, send flying, let fly with. loose off, shy,
send.
2. dismiss (an employee) from a job. "I had to fire men who've been with
me for years" Synonyms: discharge, dismiss, give someone their notice,
make redundant, lay off, let go, throw out, get rid of

5. Air
Noun
1.the invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth, a mixture mainly
of oxygen and nitrogen.
2. an impression of a quality or manner given by someone or something.
"she answered with a faint air of boredom" Synonyms: expression,
appearance, look, impression, aspect, manner, bearing, mien, countenance.
Verb
1.express (an opinion or grievance) publicly. "a meeting in which longstanding grievances were aired“ Synonyms: express, voice, make public,
vent, ventilate, articulate, state, declare, give expression to, give voice to.
2.expose (a room) to the open air in order to ventilate it. "the window
sashes were lifted regularly to air the room“ Synonyms: ventilate, aerate,
freshen, refresh.

6. Water
Noun
1.a colourless, transparent, odourless, liquid which forms the seas,
lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of living
organisms. "sodium chloride dissolves in water" Synonyms: aqua
2. A stretch or area of water, such as a river, sea, or lake. “the
lawns ran down to the water's edge" Synonyms: sea, ocean, lake,
loch, pond, pool, reservoir, river
Verb
1.pour or sprinkle water over (a plant or area) in order to
encourage plant growth. "I went out to water the geraniums"
Synonyms: sprinkle, moisten, dampen, wet, spray, splash.
2. (of a person's eyes) fill with tears. "Rory blinked, his eyes
watering”

7. EXAM =
40%

8. Everybody knows... the four
AOs
For the exam you have to show evidence of:
ALL 4 of the AOs (Assessment Objectives)
AO1: Looking at other artists
AO2: Experimenting with media
AO3: Recording your ideas
AO4: Making a final piece

9. It is important that you begin working on the
EXAM Paper straight away.
START TODAY!
Exam dates….
8 , 9 and 12 May
th
th
th

10. Where to begin?

11. Remember ….
The theme is merely a
starting point to inspire
you.
Feel free to take the
project in any direction
that you wish, provided
that you can clearly
justify and explain how
the theme has inspired
your thoughts and ideas.

12. The Four Elements
The ancient Greeks believed that
everything was composed of a mixture
of just four ‘elements’ – earth, air, water
and fire.
This is not quite as silly as it might at
first sound; the world is composed of
matter in various ‘states’ - solid, liquid
and gas and plasma - a type of very hot
high energy gas. The Greeks had in
effect divided all matter into the four
basic categories which we now called
solids, gases, liquids and plasma.
Earth – (solids)
Air – (gases)
Water – (liquids)
Fire – (plasma)
Solid
Gas
Liquid

13. You must begin by exploring all the themes
below. You then may narrow your ideas
down by choosing to focus on just some or
one of the words.
EARTH
FIRE
AIR
WATER

14. Contextual references
The artists on the next few pages
are suggestions to help you think
about possible ideas. You may
already have ideas of your own.
Keep an open mind at this point...
There is also a Beaumont Pinterest
Album of Artists and ideas to
support you with your project

15. Earth

16. Claude Monet

17. Jelle Martens
Martens work combines strong graphic blocks of
colour woven together with saturated grainy
photography to create dynamic visual palettes.
Marten is a Belgian Artist,
Photographer and Graphic Designer

18. Herbert La Thangue
(19 January 1859 – 21 December 1929)
La Thangue was an English
realist rural landscape painter

19. David
Hockney

20. Kurt Jackson

21. Fiona Hall

22. Kate MacDowell.
“In my work this romantic ideal of union with
the natural world conflicts with our
contemporary impact on the environment. These
pieces are in part responses to environmental
stressors including climate change, toxic
pollution, and GM crops”.

23. Judith Braun
New York-based artist Judith Braun creates all these
wonderful landscapes and abstract patterns using
nothing but her fingers dipped in charcoal dust

24. Anna Gillespie
Taste the Rain is part of an
ongoing series of work using
material that has fallen from trees:
acorns, beechnut casings, leaves,
bark, sycamore keys

25. Kimberly Kersey Asbury
About the Landscape Series: Powered
Pigment, Wax, Paint, Thread, Stuffing on
Canvas, Paper, and/or Fabric. The
landscapes along with the hand-stitched
artist books are inspired by William Turner’s
watercolor sketchbooks.

26. Jorge Mayet
Born in 1962, in La Habana, Cuba
Lives and works in Palma de Mallorca, Spain

27. Brian Alfred
Alfred creates collages, paintings, and
digital animations.

28. Jared Steffensen

29. Fire

30. Lucas Simoes
Simões takes photographic portraits and burns
through the eyes. Whilst the images themselves
aren't of a particularly disturbing nature, the
destruction of them using such a brutal media and
to create such sensitive forms results in something
quite grotesque but enchanting.

31. Antony Gormley
WASTE MAN was made over a six-week period at the
end of summer 2006 out of about 30 tonnes of waste
materials that had been gathered by the Thanet waste
disposal services in Kent and by local people, and
deposited in Dreamland, the area of Margate next to the
sea and close to the station that had traditionally been
the site of a vast funfair.

32. Yves Klein
Fire Paintings, 1960

33. Joseph Wright of Derby
Eruption of Vesuvius, 1776

34. Pierre Debusschere
Pierre Debusschere is a visual artist
working in the fields of photography &
video. He has shot editorials for several
leading magazines such as Vogue Homme
Japan and Citizen K, as well as being a
regular contributor to Dazed & Confused.

35. Valerie Hegarty
For Hegarty, the joy of her work lies in its
destruction rather than its making.
Centering her practice on the politics of the
American myth, Hegarty’s canvases and
sculptures replicate emblems of frontier
ethos - colonial furniture, antique
dishware, and heroic paintings of
landscapes and national figures only to
demolish them by devices associated with
their historical significance.

36. Georges De La Tour
Georges de La Tour was a French Baroque
painter, who spent most of his working life
in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was
temporarily absorbed into France between
1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious
chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight.

37. Van Gogh

38. Air

39. Tim Knowles

40. Catherine Eaton Skinner

41. Damien Hirst

42. Tadao Cern
The Artist 'blows away' photo subjects with
powerful blasts of wind to create interesting facial
expressions in images

43. Maia Flore
A beautiful series of
photographs, inspired by what
she wants to experience.

44. Tommy Ingberg
Ingberg is a self-taught photographer and
visual artist, born 1980 in Sweden. He works
with photography and digital image editing,
creating minimalistic and self-reflecting
surreal photo montages dealing with human
nature, feelings and thoughts.

45. Gerhard Richter

46. Gil Bruvel
Perceiving the flow

47. Claire Brewster
Paper in Three Dimensions”My work is
about retrieving the discarded, celebrating
the unwanted and giving new life to the
obsolete. I use old and out-of-date maps
and atlases as my fabric to create intricate,
delicate and detailed sculptures.”

48. Lisa Keophila, Fiona Lim
Tung, Kristen Lim Tung & Jon
Margono
Hanging paper flower installation

49. Jeff Wall
A sudden gust of wind, 1993
Wall produced this clever image with multiple exposures, combined in post
production (image manipulation). His inspiration was the Hokusai print

50. Adrian Sommerling
Wind

51. LuAnn Ostergaard
“My inspiration comes while trekking through the gritty chaos of a metal scrap
yard, abandoned alleyway or natural area. I find beauty in imperfection and may
often times see it in scarred, weathered and entropic surfaces of a rusty scrap of
metal, natural stone or other found objects.”

52. Peter Lippmann
series of photographs / rotting fruit

53. Water

54. William Turner
To see more of Turner’s paintings visit the National Maritime Museum
(exhibition lasts to 21st April 2014).

55. Alfred Wallis

56. Ana Teresa Barboza

57. Matt Wisniewski
My home is the sea

58. Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle met people in Turkey who
despite living close to the coast had
never seen the sea. These films show
the first time they look at the ocean.
They were asked to turn around and
face the camera when they were ready.
Emotions range from elation to bitter
tears.
“Voir La Mer” (To see the sea)

59. Peter Doig

60. Sandra Meech
“As part of my
research for
the course I
discovered the
textiles and
clothing of the
Caribou Inuit
in Northern
Canada and
was
fascinated by
the Arctic
landscape.”

61. Thomas Saliot

62. Jean-Pierre Kunkel
Oil paintings
of pools

63. Alexandre Ciancio

64. Deniz Senyesil

65. Katsushika Hokusai

66. Aneta Ivanova

67. Tina Crespo
Crespo is a photographer whose work has
featured in Urban Outfitters, Elle Decor
UK, NY Mag's TheCut.com Apartment
Therapy, SFGirlByBay, Creature Comforts,
and Philly.com

68. Charlotte X. C. Sullivan
Buamai - Bubble Drawings :

69. Alberto Seveso
Ink and water

70. Linnea Strid

71. All…

72. Dorothea Lange

73. Roni Horn
“You are the Weather”

74. Ron Mueck
Mueck's sculptures faithfully
reproduce the minute detail of the
human body, but play with scale to
produce disconcertingly jarring visual
images.

75. Lucian Freud

76. This week….
Create a Pinterest account
and start pinning images
relating to your exam title
Create a broad A2 spider
diagram
Create an A2 mood board
on the theme you want to
focus on