When Monica (one of our Preschool Two teachers) and I
decided to offer a splatter painting provocation to her Studio group, I
suggested that we invite an “expert” on the subject from Preschool One. A. volunteered to join us, and together we read some parts of my documentation of
Preschool One’s splatter-painting session. The children then examined the other
splatter paintings, offering their thoughts about how it had been made before
A. told them a little about his experience.
L: “Maybe
they put paint on the paper and then they put the paper on one of those
[canvases].”
J: “I think
they did that they used a paint brush and then put paint on.”
A: “We just standed up and
splattered it on.”
Monica: “What did you
splatter on?”
A: “Paint. We did
it like this.” [He swoops his arm back and forth].
Monica: “With your
hand?”
A: “No, with a
paintbrush.”
Nina: Wow, feel this!
Katie: Please be
gentle as you touch it.
A: Yeah, or else it
will break through.
Nina: It’s smooth and
ticklish.
A: It’s a little
dirty. [We turn the canvas over to see the
wooden frame.]
Nina: It looks like a
window.
A: It’s F’s
symbol.
Next,
I asked if there was anything we should keep in mind as we splattered our
paint.
A: When you put
some paint on your paint brush, don’t get your paint on the walls.
L: Don’t
splatter it too high or it could go in someone’s eye.
J: You should
keep your eyes closed like this.
We moved onto painting, needing only a few reminders about the specific technique we were trying today.
A: It’s making
bumps on it.
Gaia: Oh! I got paint
on my foot.
A: It’s okay. Katie
will put some water later…. That’s gonna be a splatterfoam!
Gaia: There’s a lot
of light blue.
A: A big flop just
came off!
J: I see green
and blue and purple and yellow.
We
examined our painting together:
A: “Look at that
one. It looks like a really big brown river.”
Nina: “It reminds me
of a big rainbow.”
L: “It
reminds me of a big, humungous, huge color.”
Gaia: “It reminds me
of a big, humungous rainstorm.”
Finding
that the corners needed work, we focused our efforts on them during our last
few minutes painting.
What does the experience of such a painting project provide?
What
does the experience of such a painting project provide?
On the one hand, it
offers a chance for children to gain a new perspective about paint. These
children have a lot of practice using paint at a table, touching the brush (or
a hand being used as a brush) to paper. Splatter painting (in the style of
Jackson Pollock at least) involves a canvas set out on the floor, which the
artists move around with their brushes poised above but never touching it.
There is a new layer of kinesthetic movement added, but also a different sense
of cause and effect. You can aim your brush towards a certain part of the
canvas; you can move your arm in different motions to change the appearance of
the paint; but you don’t have the same control as when you actually touch your
brush to the surface you are painting. Each movement has the potential to
surprise and excite its maker.
On the other hand,
there is the collaborative nature of the work. Everyone is sharing the same
jars of paint. Everyone is sharing the same space for painting – they must keep
track of the many other bodies at work as they move around the white rectangle of
the canvas. Everyone is conscious of where their paint is going, making sure
not to “splatter it too high,” as L. said.
One piece of this
collaboration, too, is the development and sharing of expertise. In this case,
A. took on the role of the expert in the fullest sense. He had so much to
share about the process and about the painting as it was created. Having been
there for both of his experiences with this style of painting, I noticed that
A. had a lot of insights about the way the paint looked and moved that he
had not necessarily voiced the first time around. The moment where he told Gaia
not to worry about the paint on her feet also showed how aware he was of his
fellow painters and how eager he was to share what he knew with them. I am sure
that the other children gained a lot thanks to A’s presence, but I also felt
that A. gleaned a great deal from the opportunity to not only make use of what
he had learned before but also to share it with others.
What differences do you notice between the
two documented painting sessions with different groups?
What do you think
children learn from being the teacher or the “expert”? How is this different
from their learning in other roles?
