My Nature Art Class
By: Lee Soung-Won
In my fifth year after moving from a city near Seoul to a rural seaside school, I conducted an appreciation lesson on “Nature Art” during an art class after the exams and scheduled practical evaluations had concluded.
“Today, we will take time to appreciate a piece of art created by your teacher. Has anyone ever heard of the term ‘Nature Art’?”
“No.”
“That’s okay. I’ve told you before that art is about expressing yourself freely. Art mainly represents one’s thoughts and emotions through shapes and colors. So, it’s not just about using paint or clay. Art can also be expressed through gestures, objects, or even sounds. Remember?”
“Yes…”
“The ‘Nature Art’ we will explore today is an activity performed with bare hands in nature. It involves walking slowly through natural surroundings or staying in one place with a relaxed mind, observing, listening, touching, and even smelling nature itself. During this process, you may discover interesting shapes or new ideas, utilizing natural elements and situations to complete a piece of art, which is then recorded through photography. It may sound unclear just from the explanation, so let’s take a look at a picture of Nature Art. These are my works.”
(As I walked slowly along the riverside for a long time, I suddenly felt the urge to blow on the sand. I never expected it to form a perfectly round shape, like a crater. Nature Art is never planned—or even if it is, it never goes as planned. )
“The artwork shows me lying on the Geum River sandbar in Gongju, blowing on the sand. The title is simply Blowing. Easy, right?”
“Teacher, some people are good at drawing while others aren’t, but this is just lying down, blowing, taking a picture, and giving it a title. Anyone can do that! If art is this easy, even I could do it. Am I right?”
“Really? Then how about we try some Nature Art together next week at Haemi Eupseong near our school?”
And so, my Nature Art class began.
I placed a stick against a white cloud, and it turned into cotton candy.
Seeing the hinges of an old Hanok building, the student thought of a moth and completed its shape by adding blades of grass.
Nature Art is a unique art genre that originated in Korea in the early 1980s. Despite many of its founding artists being art teachers, it had not been introduced or taught to students in school until the 2000s, even 20 years after the creation of the genre of Nature Art. I took a camera and led the students to an overgrown vacant lot next to our school and, after providing safety guidance, encouraged them to create freely with nature. The students were thrilled just to be outside the classroom, and they enjoyed the relaxed art class rules, which allowed them to sit on benches, walk, or chat with friends during the two-hour session. Some even asked me, “Is Nature Art the same as Free art?“ As the class went on, some students unexpectedly discovered face-like shapes, while others used twigs and leaves to create something and called me over to take photos. I asked them to briefly explain their work and make up a title by themselves. Though they were shy and hesitant to explain at first, the works they spontaneously created were astonishingly brilliant.
I placed a stick against a randomly spotted radial leaf, and it turned into a firework.
The wounds on the violin-shaped leaf were caused by insects eating away at both sides. The student discovered a violin in the forest and shouted with joy.
On the first day of our outdoor Nature Art class, I was deeply impressed by the students’ creativity and expressiveness. I couldn’t understand how they produced such ingenious pieces without any formal instruction, and I lay awake late into the night pondering it. In the subsequent sessions, the students continued to create an endless variety of fun and fascinating works. The student artworks included in this article were all entirely their own ideas.
The student, who had to deeply contemplate the issue of entering high school, expressed their high loss through this dark hole.
Teacher: What’s the title?
Haemi Student: The Journey of a Stone. I don’t know if this stone has been stuck here for 100 years or just 10 years, but it looked so frustrated that I wanted to let it go on a short journey.
It has now been over 20 years since I started teaching Nature Art in a middle and high school. Looking back, I never skipped a single year. I believe that Nature art is not something I taught, but rather a form of play where children’s innate abilities for imitation and metaphor met nature. That is why I also call it “Original Art” or “Just Art,” Nature Art is a free and spontaneous form of expression without predetermined methods. Nevertheless, it has certain characteristics and methods of expression, as outlined below.
Characteristics of Nature Art
- Deep Walking: Wandering with no artistic goal.
- Useless Plans: Even if you plan, nature rewrites your script.
- Responsive Ideas: Inspiration arises from reacting to nature, not brainstorming in isolation.
- Joyful Meditation: Creativity through playful interaction.
- Original Art: Art created before we “learned” the rules of art.
- Sincere Small Acts: Picking up a single leaf can hold profound meaning.
- Nature as Artist: Sometimes, nature itself is the true creator—we simply notice.
- Nature Completes the Work: Wind, rain, and time finish what we begin.
- Ephemeral Beauty: The work belongs to the place and time where it was made.
- Art and Time: Eventually, all Nature Art returns to nature.
In the Nature Art class, the petals of the peony became a skirt. The friend dancing is so excited, jumping and spinning around, while the friend holding the petals is busy adjusting the distance and taking photos. How wonderful would it be if our lives were a dance every day?
Expression Methods in Nature Art
- Imitating an existing work
- Finding resemblances
- Connecting elements
- Drawing or creating
- Making up stories
- Utilizing special situations or materials
- Merging one’s body with nature
- Engaging with sunlight, wind, water, and insects
- Using man-made objects
- Expressing through gestures
- Discovering new ways of expression
After placing a stone on a close friend’s face and taking a photo, the student titled it “A Stone Head.” I don’t think such a piece could be created unless they’re very close to someone.
Creating facial expressions with twigs may seem ordinary, but filling a container with water and floating the twigs to form facial expressions is truly creative. The student thought that the expression changed every time the waves rippled.
Nature Art is something anyone can do and anyone can teach. In Korea, children are increasingly exposed to smartphones and computers while becoming more disconnected from nature. I assume this is a global phenomenon. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, introduced the term “Nature-Deficit Disorder.” The more children are distanced from nature, the weaker their physical and mental well-being becomes.
I hope that more children can experience Nature Art classes, where they feel a sense of freedom, cultivate creativity, and develop a love for life around them. I sincerely wish for more teachers worldwide to try this lesson.
Lee Soung-Won is a Nature Artist, and Head Art Teacher at Seokrim Middle School in Seosan, Korea.