My goal is to design projects that teach our students art fundamentals with materials that interest them and provide for a wide range of creative choices from each student.
Students will learn the academics of art: what is a line, how to mix colors, what is value, how to draw something that looks three dimensional, how to use watercolor paints, why oil pastels resist watercolor paint and the difference between watercolor paper and regular paper. Each project is designed for the developmental capabilities of each age group, something new to challenge them and help them stretch alongside something they have already mastered and are confident about.
Projects are open ended so that choice is a large component of each art project to help build confidence in flexing their creativity. As kids get older, these choices will increase and take into account their more expanded skills. Along with making art is making mistakes so I also place a huge emphasis on how to deal with the unexpected things that may happen when students make art, whether it’s an unexpected drip of paint in the wrong place to making a giraffe neck longer than they think it should be.
What you won’t see coming out of the art room is a “Meet the Masters” approach to teaching art. Meet the Masters is a popular teaching methodology that uses master artists like Van Gogh as models for children’s art projects. Students will be shown a style of art and then mimic that style for their project. It is in lots of schools and it works well, kids create beautiful art in a short period of time. However, I don’t think it’s always an authentic, creative experience for children. I don’t think it’s a natural process for students to mimic a mature artist’s work. Because of the structure and philosophy here at HTe, I have the time and resources to go several steps beyond that level of art education. This doesn’t mean we won’t be studying artists from the past, it just means we won’t necessarily be trying on their methods and materials as our projects. For instance, we may not make a waterlily painting like Monet’s but we will look at light and reflections as a way to understand how he saw light and nature, a very concrete real world experience for children that they can connect and continue to think about long after the art project is over.
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Students will learn the academics of art: what is a line, how to mix colors, what is value, how to draw something that looks three dimensional, how to use watercolor paints, why oil pastels resist watercolor paint and the difference between watercolor paper and regular paper. Each project is designed for the developmental capabilities of each age group, something new to challenge them and help them stretch alongside something they have already mastered and are confident about.
Projects are open ended so that choice is a large component of each art project to help build confidence in flexing their creativity. As kids get older, these choices will increase and take into account their more expanded skills. Along with making art is making mistakes so I also place a huge emphasis on how to deal with the unexpected things that may happen when students make art, whether it’s an unexpected drip of paint in the wrong place to making a giraffe neck longer than they think it should be.
What you won’t see coming out of the art room is a “Meet the Masters” approach to teaching art. Meet the Masters is a popular teaching methodology that uses master artists like Van Gogh as models for children’s art projects. Students will be shown a style of art and then mimic that style for their project. It is in lots of schools and it works well, kids create beautiful art in a short period of time. However, I don’t think it’s always an authentic, creative experience for children. I don’t think it’s a natural process for students to mimic a mature artist’s work. Because of the structure and philosophy here at HTe, I have the time and resources to go several steps beyond that level of art education. This doesn’t mean we won’t be studying artists from the past, it just means we won’t necessarily be trying on their methods and materials as our projects. For instance, we may not make a waterlily painting like Monet’s but we will look at light and reflections as a way to understand how he saw light and nature, a very concrete real world experience for children that they can connect and continue to think about long after the art project is over.
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