going with the flow

 I always come into the studio with a plan for the day when working with children, but I have also learned to let that plan change depending on the mood of the kids or the direction their own creativity brings into the mix.

On Friday, the last day of art camp, I had planned to introduce the Impressionistic painting style using some of the sketches the students created a couple of days earlier on our mountain hike.

But then a family showed up with a beautiful arrangement of sunflowers for me!  I was so touched and my plan for the day immediately changed.

I would share both Impressionistic and Post Impressionistic painters with the students, a bit of Van Gogh and a bit of Monet.  

I'm a firm believer in the importance of children understanding the technique behind the work, not just the work of art.  And so we spent some time looking at a series of paintings created by the artist and discussing what they noticed about the paint strokes and techniques on the art.  We then focused in on how they could recreate the brush strokes in the paintings we observed and how to blend color directly on the paper, instead of on the palette.

I reinforced that each of their strokes would be unique to them.  I also did not give them a water bowl to clean off their brushes, instead asking them that once they had a color on their brush to "wipe it off" by using that color in all areas of their painting they thought it applied.

They were only given primary colors, some white, black, and brown.  

And finally I gave them a bit of molding paste, to create some of the thick paint strokes they noticed in Van Gogh's work.

I then took the sunflowers and placed them on a white table cloth, a table cloth you will not see in one of the artworks, with a few apples and a pear.  I told them it was "artist choice" as to how much or how little they used to compose their work. 

11 year old

8 year old

11 year old

11 year old

7 year old

10 year old

Below is the artwork of two seven year olds who are the best of friends.  They finished early so I gave them another piece of paper to paint whatever they liked, mostly because Ms. M was not all that impressed with the painting style of Van Gogh and Monet.  I'm guessing if it was up to her, Van Gogh might still of only sold one painting....  However she forged ahead and gave the style a try.  I think they both came up with very cute pieces the first time around.

7 year old

unimpressed 7 year old

But what tickled me the most, although I didn't say anything to them, was that when allowed to paint whatever they wanted in reward to at least giving the above style a try...they both seemed to maybe subconsciously like painting in this style more than they might of let on because as you can see, it still carries a lot of the qualities of Van Gogh.

7 year old

7 year old

It was all I could do to keep my instinctive mommy "I told you so" comment to myself, but it did bring a smile to my face to see quite possibly a little bit of Van Gogh's starry night find it's way into their apple paintings.  Absolutely no prompting from me and they were given free reign to paint anything their hearts desired and yet this is what they did, too funny.  

I love that although the students were all looking at the same still life and working in the same style, the paintings are all extremely unique to the individual who painted them.  I dare say several of the students will be utilizing this style in their artwork in the future and that is what is so great about introducing an artist with the intent of teaching a style technique, not a recreation of their artwork.

And most importantly,  I am incredibly grateful for the beautiful sunflowers that inspired this project and the fact it reinforces to me the importance that I continue to be open to "going with the flow" when working in my studio.