Young children ‘do’
art for the experience, the exploration, the experimentation and of course the
enjoyment. In the process of completing
their work they discover mystery, creativity, joy, and at times even
frustration and challenge. I feel these factors all make art and creativity
for young children a really vital and essential aspect of any early childhood
programme, and one that we certainly nurture carefully and thoughtfully at
Mairtown.
Art is a learning tool we use frequently at Mairtown, and I believe it’s important to remember that children
should be encouraged to be independent in their artistic processes rather than
striving for a finished product. With this in mind, when I introduced the children to a type of art - painting on
wood and later layering these painted colours with PVA glue and gold and silver
pens – it was the process that was in my mind. However, the added benefit of this process is that
the product has turned out to be incredibly beautiful.
The first
step in this process was for each child to choose a piece of wood. They then
painted the wood in sections of bold colours. Next came the difficult bit, we
had to wait for it to dry! When dry I invited the children back to revisit
their painting and we talked about carefully adding PVA glue in black, silver
and/or gold (next came the hard part again – more waiting as it dried). The
third step was to create finer more intricate details and patterns with the
addition of gold and silver pens.
In the
photos below the children are adding the PVA. This was quite challenging at
times; squeezing the bottle as well as moving it to create a line requires a
lot of fine motor skill and concentration.
Author and
artist Mark Wagner who heavily promotes creativity and art within education
talks about how ‘Art Develops the
Whole Brain.’ Mark suggests
‘Art strengthens focus and increases attention, it
develops hand-eye coordination, whilst also requiring practice and strategic
thinking, and finally involves interacting with the material world through
different tools and art mediums.’
Although
the creation of these art pieces looks like a three step process, I really wanted to encourage
the children to take time with their work. Often the children thought they were
finished, but would choose to revisit it again a little later or on the next
day, adding an extra layer of PVA or pen. The whole process was about taking
time and having the option to keep on revisiting, reflecting and adding on.
When children are able and invited to revisit
their work over time, they are able to view it though a different lens.; for instance,
what can I add to enhance my work? What does it mean to me? Am I finished? It
is when they see it from a different perspective that they may then decide to
add to it or change it.
When
children re-visit their work they become better observers, become more aware of
their own thinking processes, develop dispositions of good thinking and become
more critical and able to expand their expressive repertoire (Salmon, 2007).
My role as
the teacher in this work was to support and encourage, to ‘slow down’ children’s
thinking at times, so they could process their thoughts and then transfer these
into their work. I really wanted to emphasise the importance of lingering for
children – of not rushing to get to the end – but of reassuring them that this
will still be available in half an hour or tomorrow; to assist the children in
becoming fully immersed in their work in a relaxed and thoughtful manner.
Although
many of the children used Hundertwasser art work for inspiration, the real
creating must of course belong to each child. It is in the making of these
creations that children gain value from their work. These art pieces
demonstrate each child’s process; they demonstrate each child’s ideas and imagination
as they reflect on past and present experiences, and for us, these pieces give
us a little insight into each child’s expression of the world.
Mia gave
some very clear instructions on how this art should be done ‘I’ll tell you what you need to make one of
these, we need a silver and golden pen and some glue and wood and paint and a
book to look at. The book is to give you ideas and if you haven’t got your own
ideas you can use some of the ideas from the book. I had my own ideas but I did
use a few from the book. You have to be patient to do this, like wait for the
next day, you must wait and then do a little more till you are all done.’
Many
teachers talk about process art versus product, but I think it’s clear from the
children’s work here you can engage in process art yet still have stunning
outcomes. Process art is about art being
open to children, of having no expectations, of children doing, of them experimenting
with materials and ideas and of them discovering, exploring and wandering. This
is certainly evident in each of these unique pieces.
After many
many days of work, finally the children each, one by one, and only when they
were ready, began to announce they had finished. As the children had worked
over several days to complete their work we had had plenty of opportunities to
discuss how artists give a name to their pieces and how many artists also
choose to tell a story through their work. It was at this point then, that I
asked each child if their art work had a story to tell, and if they would like
to name their work.
 |
| A collection of the work together |
Here are
some of the finished pieces with the stories – a real insight into how art can
enhance imagination.
“Art can bring imagination to life and give
life to imagination” Dogra 2010
Sam: My one looks like a house and there are
shooting stars. The moon looks like a pancake and I’ve added a little rocket
and this is a moon house. My picture is called ‘Rocket’ and I’ve added another
planet, that’s Saturn and Mars. There’s an astronaut and the house in space has
rocket boosters, even the rocket houses can crash into stars. Here’s Jupiter
and here’s Uranus.
Sienna: I just made the ideas up, may be it’s taken
me like 4 or 5 days. It reminds me of a rainbow, but that little bit there
reminds me of a beach. I’m just going to call it ‘Rainbow’.
Amaya: First I did the lines in paint then I do the
dots, mines called spider web. No, no
it minds me of a mountain. I’m going to call it ‘Mountain’ cause its like
mountains exploded. I haven’t seen one explode but I watched a cano explode
before on the TV and it looked like my picture.
Milla: It’s all dry now. First we did paint in blue
and purple then I did the bubbles in silver and I did the H’s shiny gold. The picture
has a special name it’s called ‘Our House’. There are bubbles that fly up high
in the sky and the dots live outside our house.
Ahmad: I love it. I show it to my mum and dad and
they be proud of me and I’m show it to my friends.
Emma: I did the painting and then I did the glue
and then the silver and golden pens and then I waited for it to dry and I
really like the look of it. It’s going to be called the ‘The World of Planets’
cause this is planets and this is a desert planet.
Sadie: First we did painting, then we did PVA’s
then I did the silver pens and gold. I used the book for ideas. Mines called
‘The Alien Planet’ but now we have to wait and wait for it to dry.
Sharlotte: These flowers are the garden – my garden
and the school garden – my new school. The blue is the sky and it’s a rainbowy
day. I’m going to call it ‘Rainbow flower’.
Ruby: It kind of reminds me of Hundertwasser.
I’m calling mine ‘Rainbow’…there is a story, cause this picture shows where the
kids sleep and waking up they saw a rainbow and then they saw the sun with gold
and then the mummy and daddy woke up and said ‘Go back to sleep cause it’s not
morning time’. So they went back to sleep and saw dots in their room and they
they woke up again and played.
Ruben: Those look like swimming pool and the
water of the swimming pool and these are the stories in the water. I’ll call
mine ‘Swimming Pool’.
“There is more to
art than just drawing a picture that looks like something. The process of
creating a piece of art is precious, especially when you make something
relevant and make a bold, personal and contemporary statement” Source unknown
 |
| Mia -'Artist's Picture'. |
Mia and
Emma both reflect on their learning. Mia discusses how each piece although
created in a similar manner, looks very different. None of them looked the same cause if they looked the same it looks
like someone’s done all of them the same and then they don’t look nice together
as they’d all be the same. They look nicer when they’re all different. I’ve
learnt if you don’t be patient it will smudge as it isn’t dry yet, you have to
be patient over several days. This is my work for over days. Whilst Emma tells me I’ve learnt that I think you have to think quietly and that it takes
lots of days to do this.
Children need
to be submersed in rich artist experiences and given time to revisit and create
at their own pace. When you follow the children’s lead – as you can see here –
you will go to some wonderful places :)
Until next time,
Christine
These art
pieces will on display for a few weeks from 12th September in the Whangarei Central Library as part
of their 'A Big Day in at the
Library'. If you live in Whangarei we'd love you to visit and tell us what you think.
