"If the soul has in it good, true, beautiful, noble and heroic images, it will become like those things. Additionally since whatever is true is also beautiful, an appreciation of the beautiful prepares the way for an appreciation of the true". I love this quote by Laura Berquist, the founder of Mother of Divine Grace school. She said it in context of studying art and the masters, and I also believe it is true in creating art. I love painting, so I was eager to teach my children as well. There are many mediums to choose from and art curriculums. I ended up with keeping it simple and using only watercolors, so that they may learn to love painting and become familiar with it.
Our painting lessons follow a similar concept as our drawing lessons. We focus on color first and work our way slowly up to creating forms with the broad strokes of a 1” brush. At the beginning of a lesson, I demonstrate a painting and the children’s job is to watch and remember as much as they can. It is important for them to think ahead and see the image in their minds eye before diving in to
begin painting. For there are no lines to follow and there is no previous sketch to fill in. The colors are not mixed in advance on a pallet, but on the page itself as they paint. This skill builds confidence especially when practiced weekly. I like to plan lessons that follow the seasons or the liturgical calendar. I feel my children are most inspired when painting images that have to do with their faith, and I can see this in the results of their work. This has encouraged me even more to continue to create lessons for them that will help them grow in their faith.
Pre-school and Kindergarten
In the beginning stages of art, I intentionally do everything slow and repetitive. For the early years, I find this method easy to teach, the finished paintings are beautiful, and the children love it! For preschool to kindergarten we use only one to two colors at a time, either red, yellow or blue. That is all! I introduce the primary colors by having them fill a page with one of the colors at a time. Why paint a whole page with just one color? For the little ones, it gives them experience with the bright watercolor, their
paper, the brush and the water. As they advance, it gives them practice paining evenly, practice holding the brush, and practice creating value. Once they are comfortable holding a brush properly, washing a brush, and stroking with a brush softly without bending the bristles or scraping the metal onto the paper, then they are ready to move onto two colors. The primary colors are important as they create all secondary colors. Instead of the basic teaching of the color wheel, it is fun to let the children discover this for themselves. Using blue and red, I instruct them first to use one color, for example blue, for a portion of the page, then red for the rest. When red comes to meet blue they will discover they have created purple which usually causes great excitement. They will also discover this color mixing after washing their brush in the water. Using only one color in the beginning will help them appreciate the other colors they will create.
First and Second Grade
For first and second grade we most often focus on practicing painting with two color and become comfortable with creating images and forms with just two colors. They use the broad strokes of their brush and we also learn how to use the tip and the thin edge of their brush. Three colors are also used as they advance.
Third and Fourth Grade
Even for my older children we begin each school year using one color to create images. By third and fourth grade, I introduce a darker blue, a
gold, and another shade of red to add more variance to the colors they can create on the page. By now they have learned how movable watercolors are and how to take away some color that was already painted onto the page. They are given a pointed smaller brush as well to add more detail. This is when paining class becomes very fun as they have gradually worked up to this point and are ready for It!
If children are already use to having a full color pallet, they may ask why just one, two or three colors? And I like to say “this is for school art, during free time if you would like to use the watercolor pallet you may.” After becoming used to the repetitive nature of the painting class, I have found my children more careful and inspired with the full pallet. I have also found that my children have learned to have quiet, focused time while they are painting and can be focused for long durations. I see that they are content and always look forward to painting with watercolors.
Tips
As with Stockmar block crayons, the water color paint is vibrant and lasts for a long time. For a couple of years, I tried to use other tube watercolor paints and water them down in the same fashion in the hope that I could find a cheaper version but other paints just were not as vibrant, and I probably spent more money or a similar amount in the end. I put a little bit of the thick watercolor paint in a plastic or glass jar that has a lid. Then I add purified water to the jar and mix the paint with the water. I found that adding purified water keeps the paint from going bad. If you don't use purified water, you can also put it into the fridge to help it keep longer. But I have found that using purified water works well without putting it in the fridge and the paint will last a whole semester on the shelf. The last step is to test the paint on some paper to make sure it is the right vibrancy, and to make sure it is not to watered down and not too thick.
There is a lot of the red paint I put into this jar and I filled it all the way with purified water because I was distributing it between 4 jars at the beginning of the school year for each of my children. So if you are just doing one jar of paint use much less paint!!
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