After School Studio, Monday, 10.31

Only a few children chose to paint today while others used red clay for the first time. One young artist was dissatisfied with one of his paintings, which included blue and yellow brush strokes, and wanted to start over. When asked what about the painting he didn’t like, he responded that he wanted the whole page to be blue and the yellow was getting in the way. I suggested he see what he could do with the parts he didn’t like, for instance turning them into something else. By first asking him what he disliked about the image, the child was able to focus on why he was becoming frustrated and hopefully practice problem solving skills other than just giving up on the image and starting a new one. He tried to expand the yellow marks but still expressed frustration with the piece and asked for another piece of paper to start over. I then asked him what his plan was for the new piece. He responded that he was trying to create an image of the ocean. When asked what about his current work didn’t look like the ocean he explained that he wanted to depict under the ocean and this was more the surface of the water. I prompted the young artist to think about what he could change or do differently to reach this result without getting frustrated. He thought for a little while and then responded that he would leave out the yellow and paint the entire paper blue, adding fish using a lighter blue to show that they were under the water. He created a new piece using shades blue and some purples and was very pleased, relaying a story about how it is a zoomed in view of the ocean floor containing a starfish and a monster climbing up the starfish. Although the young artist started over, he was able to problem solve and compete his desired effect rather than hurriedly moving through several pieces of paper.