Interpreting Children's Art

I read a comment this morning next to a child's artwork - that the child's artwork was too abstract and involved no thought and that she needed to learn more "realistic" art. Have located a photo of the creation of the art work in question (above)

Please tell me you see the problem with the above comments by the carer. Especially when I tell you that the carer had not been with the child when she made the piece (which was beautiful and involved a lot of complex colour mixing of different hues - and lines).

Research and practice surrounding children's art has evolved a lot in the past decade. Educators should now be aware that children do not just "scribble" it has meaning and thought just like any art work a adult completes.

I agree that children should be taught the skills to draw and paint. For example I recently did an observation commenting that a child is starting to draw people so we should give her some models.

I highly recommend the above book as a good place to start if you are interested in this topic.

White on Black: Art Inspiration

Just a quick post today as I feel like I have been a little remiss...

I thought I would tell you about the wonderful art class I had yesterday.

The focus of the lesson was line. So our teacher got us to use black paper and white gouache (you could substitute this with - acrylic, white chalk, oil pastels, basically anything along those lines - though gouache is a wonderful medium so would love to try it with the children soon).

As inspiration, she provided us with a number of black and white prints (for some she used pictures that were not actually black and white but came out that way when photocopied). You are looking for pictures with a black background and that you have to explore the concept of negative space - i.e. you are applying the light not the dark which you typically do.

Note that she provided us with inspiration/art works to learn the skill from - this is something that i believe really strongly in  - A child (or adult) cannot learn art skills out of thin air they have to see examples of the work you are aim for and you have to help them see and learn the skills that are necessary to master the art.

Initially, I thought this exercise would be reasonably easy but when you settle into the task you quickly begin to realise the thought that the artist has put into the composition and line in the drawing. One piece in particular that I spent most of the class working out was fitted together like a beautiful jigsaw puzzle of gymnasts... I will try and find a link to for you (just had a quick look then and got nowhere - he is an Australian artist who did a whole series of gymnast paintings before moving on to dance scenes - if you know it let me know).

I highly recommend it as a something to try out yourself and with your children.

Allowing Time for Mastery

On my facebook page recently I added a link that showed a day in the life of a Waldorf/Steiner preschool. One of the things they talked about is allowing time for children to understand and master a story.

This carries a strong resonance with me - particularly with art projects.

Firstly, I believe it is vital to provide the children with artist quality materials. If you provide the children with cheap materials you will find the children tend not to respect the materials, they will not be able to create high quality artworks and often you don't save money as the materials do not last.

Secondly, I believe that the children need to be provide the same (or similar) art experiences on a regular basis. Through this the children develop skills and knowledge of the materials - leading to more complex and insightful work. This does not necessarily mean every day - though i think a writing /drawing table should be out every day.

I have been putting this believe in practice over the last month at my centre - and the beautiful artworks that the children creating are a great reassurance in this philosophy (i will post some tonight when i download my photos).

In addition, on the curriculum front, one of my prac supervisors once told me that the creation of beautiful artworks by a child (especially one where they invest a lot of time in creating it) is a incredible example of the spiritual child and their understanding of beauty in the world