Spowers & Syme

Part of the Know My Name initiative celebrating women artists, this learning resource supports primary school students to investigate and draw inspiration from the groundbreaking prints and paintings of Australian women artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme. These artists were best friends who encouraged each other to experiment and explore different ways of making art, promoting new ways of doing and seeing.

The resource, which complements the National Gallery of Australia’s touring exhibition Spowers & Syme, focuses on a selection of key themes, including About the Artists, Play and Games, and Landscapes. Themes are accompanied by Look, Think and Create prompts, offering Making and Responding activities that foster critical and creative thinking.

Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme were lifelong friends who inspired and encouraged each another in their artistic pursuits. They were pioneers in printmaking and modern art and their careers reflected the changing circumstances of women after World War 1. Spowers and Syme were among a core group of progressive Australian artists who travelled widely and studied with avant-garde artists. They were at the forefront of Modernism in Australia.

Both women grew up in Melbourne in very comfortable circumstances. Their fathers ran rival newspapers, so their families had many common interests. Spowers’ father was involved with The Argus and The Australasian, while Syme’s father helped run The Age. Both families were dedicated to many causes and generous in their efforts to help others. They also supported war efforts and the Red Cross.

Spowers was the second child of six siblings and her home life was filled with rich and varied creative experiences. Her family lived in a large home in inner Melbourne called Toorak House, a graceful mansion with large gardens to play in and explore. Syme was also one of six siblings and lived nearby in a large house in St Kilda called Rotherfield.

Spowers and Syme studied and travelled together in Australia and overseas. Both were inspired by the artist Claude Flight who taught them at the Grosvenor School in London. He encouraged his students to capture the joy of movement through colour and rhythmic line and the new method of colour linocut printing. Spowers and Syme became strong supporters of being brave as artists, prepared to experiment and promote new ways of doing and seeing.

Throughout their lives the two friends advocated for important causes. Spowers’ focus was always on the welfare of children through her involvement in kindergarten education and volunteering at the local children’s hospital. Syme was particularly dedicated to the advancement of women’s university education.

Look

• One of the ways of keeping in touch with friends, long before social media, was to make and send cards for special celebrations. We still do it today. Look at the decorative nature of Spowers’ Greeting card: A happy new year c 1926 below. Text is used as a greeting but is also part of the composition. What do you notice about the style of the lettering?
• What do you think the people on this greeting card are doing? What might their clothing and body language tell us about them?

Think

• Have you received a special card that you have treasured and kept? Why did you keep it and what made it special?
• What kind of card have you enjoyed receiving and why? It might be a birthday card or a card from someone important like a grandparent just to keep in touch.

Create

• Make a card for someone in your life who you are fond of. Find some cardboard and create an image with a greeting in decorative print. Have fun with the lettering. Experiment with the shape and size of each letter or word to make it as decorative as possible.
• Spowers also wrote letters to her friends describing what was happening in her daily life. Back then, there would have been two mail deliveries a day as it was the main form of communication. Spowers wrote a funny letter describing her teachers and all the dramas of the day at art school to entertain her good friend Frankie. Write your own letter to an absent friend describing your day and what is happening in your life.

Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme captured the joy and dynamism of movement in sport and play. Through colour, pattern and intersecting lines we see the speed and energy of children skipping, running, reaching to catch a ball and the pace of skaters circling the rink in the icy coldness. Who could forget the wonderful feeling of swinging as high as possible, looking down at the world?

Spowers' images of children playing are reminiscent of her own childhood and have a whimsical charm about them. They capture the sense of wonder and curiosity seen in young children.

Linoleum (lino) was a floor covering that was invented in 1860. Imaginative artists discovered how effective it was for creating prints. With the right tools, it was easy to carve an image into it and make prints using coloured inks on the exposed surface.

Ethel Spowers Fox and geese 1933:

Look

• In Spowers’ Fox and geese the children, with arms and legs outstretched, are being called in as the skipping rope is turned and a rhyme is sung. The cue to jump in will be part of the rhyme. How would it feel to be waiting for the right moment?
• What are the visual elements that Spowers has used to create a sense of energy?

Think 

• Can you think of a rhyme that would work with the rhythm of skipping? Can you recite it and clap to its rhythm?
• How have children’s games changed over time? What games, as found in the work of Spowers and Syme from the 1930s, are the same now, more than 100 years later?

Create

• Make a frozen tableau similar to Spowers’ image Fox and geese with your classmates. Take a photo and have some fun with collage materials to create a work of art that captures the sense of rhythm and speed of skipping.

Ethel Spowers Swings 1932:

Look

• Look at the children on the swings in Spowers’ Swings 1932 (above). Some are standing while others are sitting. How high and how fast do you think they are going? What would it feel like to be one of those figures? How has Spowers created the effect of sunlight and shadows on the figures?

Think

• Think about the way line and colour in Swings have been used to create movement and the excitement of being up high. Count the figures and wonder—is there going to be a crash? So many children are crowded together in the space. Do you think the artist has created a feeling of daring or wonderful freedom?

Create 

• Is there a sport or game you play that gives you a thrill? Use line and a limited range of colours in a drawing to focus on the energy of the activity and express how you feel when you are playing or doing it.

Eveline Syme Beginners’ class 1956:

Look

• Syme’s Beginners’ class 1934 depicts skiers on a snowy slope. Look at the way she has used colour to draw our eyes into the image. Is there a colour that stands out to you?

Think

• Skiing, in the beginning, is hard work. Note the two figures at the bottom of the slope trudging up to the top. Have you ever tried a new sport that was challenging? How did you feel?

Create

• Create an image of a skier using cardboard and scissors. Think about how the body posture communicates the anticipation of the skier, knees bent and stocks in position, ready to fly down the slope. Cut out your figure and paste it onto a snowy landscape with others from your class to create a sense of busy slopes.

A sense of place is important to all of us. For Spowers and Syme, Melbourne (Naarm) was their home and held a special place in their hearts. In the 1920s, Melbourne was an important city. Lively and busy, it was also very accessible to the river and beautiful landmarks. The Yarra River (Birrarung) winding gently through the city and the industrial landscape at Yallourn were worthy subjects to focus on. Spowers’ earlier work Melbourne from the river c 1924 (below) was created looking at the river and is framed by spindly trees.

However, Spowers’ The works, Yallourn 1933, which is a power station some distance from Melbourne city, and Symes’ Bulla Bridge 1934 (following) both capture the industrial, engineered landscapes and create a sense of movement and activity.

Ethel Spowers Melbourne from the river c 1924:

Look

• Look at Spowers’ Melbourne from the river and notice the colours she has used. Imagine sitting on the bank of the Yarra River—what would you see and hear? Look at the water and the delicate outlines of the reflection of the city.
• Compare Spowers’ woodcut Melbourne from the river to her linocut The works, Yallourn. There is stillness as opposed to movement. Note the horizontal and vertical lines that race across the image.

Think 

• Can you think of a landscape that is important to you? Reflect on the colours and textures of the vegetation or the structures and buildings of your favourite place.

Create

• Create a landscape of your special place or an imaginary landscape with collage materials. Write a sentence explaining why this place is special to you.

Eveline Syme Bulla Bridge 1934:

Look

• Syme’s Bulla Bridge is a small image of an impressive bridge over a waterway known as Deep Creek outside Melbourne. The bridge was made from bluestone and built a long time ago in 1869. The image was carved into wood and then printed onto paper. Notice how the texture is created and the angles and arches are made. Where do you think the artist was positioned when she created this landscape?

Think

• Think about how light and shade give solidity to Syme’s Bulla Bridge. Explore different types of bridge structures and notice how different materials and technology influence the structure of the built form.

Create

• Using white pencil on black paper, create a landscape with a built feature like a bridge. Incorporate varying degrees of light and shade by pressing harder or softer with your pencil. Experiment with how line can be used to create interesting patterns and textures.

Curriculum Connections

This resource is linked to the Australian Curriculum and is particularly relevant to the Visual Arts learning area. By engaging with the work of Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme through the strands of Making and Responding, Foundation to Year 6 students can extend their awareness of visual conventions and consider how and why artists realise their ideas through different visual representations, practices, processes and viewpoints. Through looking, discussing and creatively engaging with art, students can develop the general capability of critical and creative thinking.

Teachers may adapt or extend this resource for use with groups of different ages and across learning areas. There is rich potential for connections to be made in the study of English and the Humanities and Social Sciences as there are creative writing tasks and opportunities to explore the concepts of continuity and change.

The National Gallery values feedback from students and teachers on the resources we produce. To share student work or your feedback, please email  learning@nga.gov.au.

Themes

Play and Games, Landscapes