An Artist's Perspective on Art Made by Children

My Thoughts on Student Art

At first glance, artwork at this age may look very abstract and random, but as a teacher who spends lots of time with ages 2 through 6, I see a lot of the thought and concentration put into their work.  It's wonderful to listen to what what my students have to say about what they see in their own art.  I often walk around while my students are at work and ask them to talk about what they are making, and they often describe things in such detail and passion.  Of course, they don't use the terminology that fine artists might, but their imagination is strong and playful.  I especially find this true while my students are working on their artwork just after a lesson, since they have these new ideas just introduced to them that are fresh in their heads and ready to be worked out onto paper (or whatever the material may be).

Lately, I have also been encouraging the kids to title their artwork and it truly adds to the quality of their art.  I find that my students are often much more literal and to the point than a lot of us experienced fine artists try to be sometimes, with our catchy, clever, and metaphoric titles.  For example, one child painted a beach with rainbows and called it "Rainbow Beach," while another child made up a story about drinking all of the water from their pool... He titled his work, "When I Drank All of The Water from the Pool."  It was perfect, and needless to say, it made me smile and giggle a little.

I look forward to hanging out with my Little Wonders students as they are always full of surprises-- You just never know what level of creativity they will come up with next.  

The next time you see child art that might look like a bunch of scribbles or something abstract, just imagine what kind of detail and depth a child might see in it.

My students painting with watercolours

Experimental Art Lesson on Wood Panels

My students, ages 2 through 6, just recently finished up an experimental painting that took each of them about two to three half-hour sessions.  The experiment involved changing the texture of smooth treated wood panels and then seeing how acrylic paint would take to it.  

I began the lesson by teaching the kids about carving, etching, and engraving into the wood.  I showed them my carving tools and demonstrated how to use them.  However, carving tools would be too dangerous to let the kids use them without the coordination, practice, and strength to use such tools.  I offered them jewelry files instead for the kids to "carve" or "engrave" into a wood panel, but it probably felt more like scratching into the panels for them.  I showed the kids how we can change the texture of a smooth surface into a rough surface by using the files.  If you are considering doing this project with your little ones, I suggest choosing softer woods that can be easily scratched into.  

Here is an image of the first session of carving (or scratching) on wood panels.  Some of the kids chose to have taped boarders so that when they were completely finished with all lessons, the untouched wood would frame the painting.

During the second session, I gave the kids a lesson on how to work with a painter's pallet using acrylic paint, and how to blend colors with plastic pallet knifes (which can be purchased at most arts and craft stores).  I used lids from plastic containers from butter spreads and yogurt containers to offer small splotches of acrylic paint on so that each child would have a small pallet to work with.  My students could either apply the paint to their wood panels with a pallet knife or a paint brush.  Each student also had a rag that they could rub the paint into the scratched surface with to see how the paint responded to the new surface.  The children found that it was easy to wipe the paint off of the smooth areas of the wood but that the paint would "stick" to or stain the scratches.

Here you can see how we used the lids to create our pallet.

Each painting turned out very unique and original.  After the kids felt that their paintings were finished, we displayed them for the week on a bulletin board, below.

  To view the paintings closely, you can check out our gallery here:

Acrylic Paintings on Wood Panels

Each painting is offered in prints in the form of blank Greetings Cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Angelique Bowman