It’s a very other-worldly feeling to be journeying life through a pandemic. In the grocery stores, yesterday, I felt to be plunked into the opening scenes of a Sci-Fi movie. Sometimes a person just has to find a way to ground themselves when all else; health, economy, events and travel are floundering. I almost feel that this is a guilty pleasure in these times…writing about children and painting. But in doing this, I feel like a rope has been tied around my ankles…someone is tugging…and I am easing my way, like an overfilled balloon… coming to rest on the ground. This is what I do.
At one time, I wrote about painting with Green in March.
This year, my friend, Claudia, inspired me by the painting she did with her students. My practice, as a guest teacher, is to promote painting with children. It can be so messy…there is the preparation and there is the clean-up…but Claudia doesn’t shy away from any of that. She is a remarkably inspiring Div 1 teacher. Thank you, Claudia!
After seeing the results of Claudia’s art lesson, I went out into a Div 1 classroom and painted the very next week.
And following that, Gillian also painted with little ones. Gillian has had a long and accomplished career as an educator and she is also not one to shy away from paint.
I wanted to post all of these resulting paintings at the same time in order to illustrate the variety that can be achieved with paint….same concept…same lesson…but, each and every painting is unique and each of the three sets of paintings is using a different palette of green. If you look about the hallways of elementary schools, if you see that there is a sameness about the works that children create, there is the possibility that their outcomes have been engineered to be close-ended; it also means that the means to get there may have been closed. (the trouble with most Pinterest activities) Try letting go, just a little, at first. The resulting projects may not be as predictable, but this is what creativity and visual art should excite in children.
Children are magical. May they be safe and may their teacher’s be safe through these trying times. Happy March! Happy GREEN!
Claudia’s Palette. (I didn’t include images of students painting because their little faces were in the photos.)
Kath’s Palette.
Gillian’s Palette
Unfortunately, we were told today that students can’t use communal art supplies. I love the project though!
What are communal art supplies? You mean sharing brushes? Well, that’s likely a good idea for now. I would definitely not share modeling clay….and forget about daily reading from the community collection!? The worst!!