A Lesson on Painting

Since picking up Nancy Beal’s The Art of Teaching Art to Children, I have been exploring more artistic opportunities for fun with Annabelle.  So far, we have experimented with collage and drawing, both of which I hope to share more about soon, and now painting.  Being that Annabelle is 2 years old, we spend most of our “painting time” exploring the paint, the brushes, the paper, and how water interacts with it all.

One night this week, Annabelle and her dad played with water colors.  First we setup the work space by placing a work surface cover on the floor (Annabelle finds it easier to work there though we also use her easel from time to time), and then I placed the watercolors, a jar of water, the paintbrushes, and a sponge for Annabelle to use to clean her brush between colors.   Below are my notes on cleaning brushes, which are taken from Beal’s The Art of Teaching Art to Children:

Cleaning Brushes

1. Emphasize the value of cleaning brushes.  Beal sings the following to her students: “Wash, wash, wash, and press, press, press.”
2.  Show children how to “tamp down” brushes at bottom of large water container to help get the paint out.
3. Show children how to press the brush into the sponges to absorb excess moisture.  (I actually found this suggestion to be helpful since while we usually wash our brushes out in the sink, I never know when the brushes are ready for use again because they can sometimes be too moist at our next painting session).

At Annabelle’s current stage of development and comfort level with paint, my husband noted that she often forgot to clean her brush between colors and also would dip her brush into paint and then dip her brush in water; however, what was important for her was seeing what her brush, the paint, and the water would do when they were working together.  Another approach that we may try next time we work with water colors is to use separate brushes for each color so that she doesn’t need to think about cleaning her brush between colors.  Below are examples of the watercolors she made:

After experimenting with water colors, at our next painting session I decided to try Beals’ suggestions for setting up and introducing tempera paints, which Annabelle paints with most often.  Beal recommends showing her students how to get a painting tray, paint containers, brush, and sponge prior to taking their place before their canvas, or paper.  While I like Beal’s set-up approach (giving students the skills to get and care for their materials) and find that this approach will benefit a child’s self-reliance and indepence with the materials, I continue to help Annabelle find her materials on the art shelves (paints are stored on the top shelf) and select one or two paint colors for her (usually primary colors so that she can also experiment with mixing colors).   I always supervise her painting  because she has a passion for painting other canvasses (like furniture, walls, etc. around our home).

To get started with the actual painting, I followed Beal’s guidelines for introducing paints:

1. Dip brush into paint and move it around on paper, modeling how to swing brush and create movement on the paper.
2. To change colors, either show child how to wash brush or switch to a new brush for the next color.
3. Show child how to mix primary colors to create secondary colors.
4. Observe child working with paint.  Notice the colors the child selects and the movement they create on their canvass.

While I did not necessarily follow the guidelines to a tee, Annabelle did sit beside me and watched how I moved my brush, making long movements and short, stifled ones to create texture.  She also observed how I used a different brush for each color and how I mixed the paints on my paper to create secondary colors.

Annabelle takes a “thinking” break while painting.

One of her final works with tempera.  She enjoyed using both the brushes and her hands to create this one.

On a final note, I am also starting to read In the Paint by Patrick Ewing and Linda L. Louis.  What I find helpful in this kids’ book about painting, so far, are the visuals for set-up, getting aquainted with materials, transitioning between paints (colors), and how as children become more confident working with paint they may begin to use paint to show their ideas.

In the meantime, if you have suggestions for good reads about kids’ exposure to the arts and working with fine arts, I’d love to hear them.  What have you found works and doesn’t work when painting at home with your young artists?