Exploring and teaching Art

If you are teaching art to young and not so young people you should encourage them to touch the art. Get a feel for the art by closing your eyes and touch by exploring the art items. Creating the awareness is important to the understanding of artistic concepts and the senses are an important part of the art experience. Remembering the smell of paint and turpentine will help recall an art experience or maybe the seeing of a vivid color in a painting will create a memory that will be everlasting. This aesthetic awareness is beneficial not only to a budding artist but to all of us who appreciate our environment.

Allow people, especially children, to love art and to indulge their fantasies when they are involved with art and allow them to express themselves through whatever artistic medium is available. Try to involve as many resources as possible to encourage creativity. For instance, try a combination of charcoal, paint, matchsticks, paint rags, small twiglets, card, newsprint, fabric, paste, wax crayons, pencils, felt pens, chalk and any other painting tools you can think of. Some people will attempt to create a recognizable image while others will be content to use the materials abstractly and just enjoy the tactile nature of the various painting media.

Artists have a keener eye than other people but it can be a skill that is learned by encouraging visual awareness from an early age. To improve the artists observation it is a good idea to employ a viewfinder. A viewfinder can be made simply from a small piece of card by cutting a rectangular slot 1½ inches by 1 inch. This cut out is the viewfinder and will concentrate the eye on a particular feature of the landscape or artistic subject whilst blocking out the surrounding areas. It helps with perspective, scale and judgment of distances.