Water colour painting

Friday 25th May 2018  

Art is a natural activity to support free play in children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. These artistic endeavours and self-directed explorations are educational as it allows children to practice a wide range of skills that include fine motor skills, cognitive development as well as math and language skills.

Children who are involved in painting gain a lifelong appreciation of art. By teaching children this skill, you’re also opening them up to an entire world of artistic expression. The delicacy of watercolour painting, unlike painting with heavier media such as poster board paints, requires a degree of gentleness and precision. The children will learn how much water they need to use to create texture and tone in colour. Will I use more water to create a piece that is more transparent or create richness with very little water?  

As educators we want to focus on the process and not the final product. Encouraging our children in the action of unstructured art helps them work with intrinsic motivation. It teaches them to express themselves freely, without worrying about what others think. If a lot of attention is given to the final product or we spend a lot of energy praising the end result, they may more likely to do things to get your approval instead of doing what they want to do. Part of focusing on the process involves encouraging effort; exploration and effort are more important than the end product.

We wanted our children to be the ones creating their own ideas instead of watching the educator take the lead. As we sat down with our children, we began to imitate their actions, painting with the same colours and with the same shapes. We found that if our children focused on what we were painting or how “good” our picture is, they are less likely to be imaginative and creative on their own.  

At this stage we could observe the children using colours in an experimental style. Teddy would test out each colour of the palette and apply this to his paper. He didn't blend the colours, but wanted to see the effect the paint had when applied to the paper. 

"Big yellow...red...green...orange." He would say, labelling each colour. Olivia was interested in blending the colours and observing how they emerge as they merge and change. "The colours are moving." She said. We can see Olivia applying more water to the palette as she masters how to transfer pigments. Lola was testing out the black pigment and seeing how far it could travel across the paper before fading.

Finnley was mastering control of his brush and focused on directionality of his brush strokes. Sophie P was interested in transferring pigments from palette to paper. Gus was interested in the effect water had to paper and created his own invisible zig zag pattern across the paper, holding the brush in a pincer grip on the end to create delicate strokes across the paper. 

We can see each child experimenting freely in their own way with varied interests. We will make water colour painting available readily over the next months to observe how the learning progression.