The head teacher of my kindy suggested researching on our local artists and then working on a similar style or technique with children. I looked through the internet and picked Carol Smith from west Auckland. Her work is mostly abstract painting of landscape, capturing the mood of various times of the day and expressing her feelings. She specializes in layering acrylic paint on canvas, which I think is quite suitable for young children to achieve.
My approach was to introduce the idea of painting from observation. I believe in a child-centred approach for art, so I let children study a few painting of Carol, featuring the blue sky in different tones. I let them involved in mixing different tones of blue with white paint and black paint. I drew their attention to the color as well as the direction of the strokes. Young children tend to move their brush up and down, like a painter painting a house. So, I pointed out how Carol used horizontal lines in her work. Finally, I put out brushes of different thickness. Naturally, children experimented with all of them. Through hands-on involvement, they learnt to vary the thickness of the lines, achieving a variety of effects.
The painting they completed looks very interesting. I call it seven shades of blue, naming after the seven different tones we had created and mixed together. Hopefully, through this painting experience, the children develop the ability to use color with growing confidence. I noticed that they are also developing a sense of movement and direction of lines, as a couple of children kept reminding others to move the brush from side to side, not up and down.
A bonus of this painting experience is supporting social competence, as I used a big canvas and children had to work cooperatively, trying to work alongside each other without getting in each other's way. A worthy art experience!
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