Tuesday, July 16, 2013

New Expanded Essay by Van James


Painting Problems: Making Aesthetic Sense of Colour

    by Van James


 Fig. 1. In kindergarten and pre-school children paint for the sheer enjoyment, without the need of a
structured painting “lesson.”

Have you ever heard the complaint, "Why do all the children's paintings look
the same?" If you've asked yourself this question after having viewed the work of
students in the lower grades of a Steiner-Waldorf school (the question rarely
arises with regard to the work of the upper grades) you're not alone. Why is it that
particularly in grades one through four the artistic work done in painting classes
often appears so similar, so uniform? And, is this a problem?