“Do you Paint What's in Your Mind?”

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They mixed paints in the mixing trays and often shared ideas about their work. ▣. Several children noticed the watercolor trays stored on the art shelf and asked ...
“Do you Paint What’s in Your Mind?” Conducting an in-depth investigation of Painting through the Project Approach

Sara Person and Cecilia Fowler Center for Young Children University of Maryland College Park, MD

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What is The Project Approach? The Project Approach- a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide children through in-depth studies of real world topics. Each study topic is explored for several weeks, giving the children opportunities to ask questions, actively explore hands on materials, interview experts, reflect on information gained, and share new knowledge with peers.





We noticed that many children wanted to paint at the easel each day. They mixed paints in the mixing trays and often shared ideas about their work. Several children noticed the watercolor trays stored on the art shelf and asked to use them.







Our children painted with tempera paints and used a variety of brushes at the easel. We offered only primary colors with black and white. We had mixing trays beside the easel for color mixing





Teachers guided children to the mixing trays but did not instruct them about which colors to use to make secondary colors such as green, orange, and purple. Children independently ‘discovered’ new colors and shared their knowledge with each other.







Children completed a homework assignment to find things in their home that were painted. Each child shared their ‘painting findings’ with the class and answered questions from their classmates. We sorted their items into a large chart





We sorted the items children brought from home into similar groups. Some were paintings by an artist, some were objects that were painted in decorative ways, and some were functional things such as walls and furniture. After large, small and individual conversations, we decided that the focus of our study would be on artwork that could be painted on flat surfaces.



We used books to compare the differences between photos taken by a photographer and illustrations painted by an artist.



Small groups of children went into each room of the CYC to look for paintings and count them.





We photographed the paintings and glued them onto a bar chart. We counted them and wrote the total numbers on our chart.





We began by placing lots of gourds and corn in the center of the table as a still life. We asked the children to look at and touch the objects and make a contour drawing using permanent markers. We asked, “What shapes do you see? Are there any lines, bumps, textures?”





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“I’m using big strokes. It’s floating! This is how she did it . . . putting water on the paper!”

The children experimented with the techniques demonstrated by the visiting artist. They ‘floated color” by putting clean water on their paper before adding color. Children mixed color directly on their paper. Their paintings were vivid, lively, and often non-representational.





Before we went to the Painting Studio the children made predictions about what they would see at the painting class. Their predictions were based mostly on their experiences in the classroom.







Professor Klank gave us a tour of his beginning painting class. The students allowed the children to look at their work tables and tools. Some of them talked about their paintings. In the hallway we viewed the color studies made by the college students .







We added an extra easel and a table dedicated to watercolor painting. We added temporary frames so we could display more paintings. We made a perimeter with tape at the suggestion on one of our children who said, “We could put a big rectangle around our studio.”









We attached a large piece of Plexiglas to our fence. We placed paints and brushes in caddies that could be easily carried. The outside studio became a very popular place for children to gather. The outdoor space promoted representational nature painting.





We added a light table with color viewers and pieces of cellophane in primary colors for exploration.





At the Science area we added small trays, pipettes, and containers of yellow, blue and red colored water. The children mixed the colors in the trays to make many hues of green, purple, orange, and much more.





We invited a local artist Denise Marie to visit our class. As she showed us her paints and brushes one of the children asked, “Do you paint what’s in your mind?”





The artist showed us photographs she had taken and paintings she made using the photos as her reference. She painted on a canvas using acrylic paints.







The children began taking photos of their own using a donated camera. We bought canvas boards and a set of acrylic paints for the children to use. We printed each child’s photograph and put it on the easel next to the canvas for reference as she/he painted.





We compared the way Ms. Beidler and Mr. Rice painted by asking; “What things did they do the same?” “What things were different?” We created a Venn diagram.





A parent in our class was our tour guide and painting expert at the Art Gallery at University of Maryland University College. We saw a special exhibit by McArthur Biniun called “Color Exploration”





In another Gallery in the same building we saw a group of representational paintings by Herman Maril. The children used pencils and clipboards to make observational drawing of the paintings.





The children noticed that the artist painted his name on his paintings. We also read the plaques beside the paintings to learn the titles and the media used.







Each child looked at all the painting he/she had made during the painting study and selected one for the Art Gallery. The teachers selected another painting for each child. As curators we all “took care of the artwork”. The artists gave each piece a title and described the media they had used.







We hung foam core from the ceiling for hanging artwork. We borrowed easels and covered them in black paper. We cleared all bulletin boards to make room for paintings.





We bought used frames at the thrift store, and borrowed many more. We cut mats from poster board.



We hung a plaque near each painting with the title given by the artist, artist's name, media, and date.

We wrote invitations using many writing strategies including following teachers models, using invented spelling, peer support, and teacher prompting.





The children stood proudly by their work and explained the media, the process, and the ideas that inspired them. The parents asked questions and circulated around the room to view all the artwork.