Art making is a language children use to communicate and express themselves. This young artist is keen on exploring the many different art media in the studio. She listens as well as verbally comments on her work and the materials available to her... in three different languages!

 In between exploring the materials, she also often engages others and myself in conversation about different things she notices in the studio, from art hanging on the walls to the various materials on the shelves. Although I cannot quite comprehend the words she is speaking, being a mixture of Spanish, Turkish, and English, she is understood on many different levels.

The studio environment facilitates this young artists creativity as a means to explore materials and reflect on her art process. By interacting with others in the studio she develops verbal skills and expands her vocabulary.

With mono prints artists can explore painting a 

different surface other than paper, in this case glass, 

and printing their image onto paper.

This young artist took notice of how this method 

enabled her to create multiple prints on one paper

from the same image. After lifting her paper

she exclaimed, "Look! Now there are 

two girls together!"

  She continued to make multiple prints,
adding a rainbow and a cat to create a scene.

Searching for just the right color

Sifting through the treasures in our collage bins, this young artist was interested in finding everything and anything pink!

As she moved around the table, she collected bits of paper, fabric,

tissue, mylar, and buttons that met her color requirements.

Often the other artists offered her pieces that they found, and

while still focusing on their own work, it became a group effort

to help her find just the right pieces for her art work.

 

 

 This social interaction occurs naturally during the creative process
and is an innate value of the art studio. Others observed her particular interest
 and the group discussed her process with each other. Working side by side in the studio,
young artists become comfortable and develop a sense of community.

Chance Discovery

Every moment in the studio is an opportunity for discovery, only sometimes
that discovery is not the one we anticipated!

This young artist was busy creating her second collage when suddenly,
as her newly loaded brush went from glue towards paper, she stopped.
After a few seconds of moving her brush back and forth, she commented,
"Look at that! It's pink and green!"

 

 

It took us a moment to realize she had noticed the different color shadows that were cast by the red, blue, and green colored lights! The pair then played with shadows and light exploring and acknowledging the excitement of this new discovery!

 

Some artists are naturally very focused on 

the sensory aspect of art making. This young artist 

often becomes a bit mesmerized with more fluid

materials such as wet clay and paint.

This week, after enjoying the sensation of smooth red clay on her hands as she built an elephant pinch pot, she moved on to paint exclaiming, "This is going to be a finger painting!"


 She started making individual fingerprints all over the paper. Unlike the previous week's painting, in which she smoothly smeared paint together to create her painting, this time she uniformly touched just the tips of her fingers,
creating a stippling effect (stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating shading by using small dots).

 

At the end of class, she shared with the other artists the inspiration for this piece. She explained that she had seen in a gallery a very large portrait of a woman that the artist created using only his fingerprints.

 

Making the connection between her method of working with materials
and how this artist created the portrait, she applied her
knowledge of the art world to her own creative process.

In the studio, we love to see these connections to the art world and
watch as young artists progress with their individual styles!

(Chuck Close, Georgia Fingerprint 1)

Comments for young artists and their artistic process

Encouraging comments that focus on a
child's process in art making can create an atmosphere of exploration.

This young artist began by painting a duck in a hat with the colors that he mixed. Just as he finished the duck, he stated he was finished
and wanted to move on to
something else.

I asked him, "Before you move on, can you tell me about your painting?"

"It's a duck in a silly hat." He replied.

I then responded, "Where is he? What is he doing? 

What is going on around him?"

After thinking for a minute, the artist painted a blue ground line. 

He again became totally immersed in the process, adding aliens
and a moon and describing the duck as "karate chopping the aliens."

For other helpful things to say during young artists' process,
click here to visit Anna's blog about process comments!
In this case, the comments and questions about the artist's painting
encouraged him to engage in his process and develop focus.
He also experienced great pleasure as he proudly shared his story with the
other artists in the studio!