Imagine you are walking into an early childhood environment. Stop at the door and take a look around. What do you see? Try looking in the corner or by the window, and chances are it won't be long before a paint-splattered easel or cheery pots of paint catch your eye. Indeed, we could argue that these 'painting basics' are an integral part of the early years landscape.
Yet, while we can easily expect to find these basics in any setting, do we know why painting in early childhood is so important? Do we know how to encourage and stimulate painting experiences? Are we aware, as educators, of the impact that our involvement has on young children's painting experiences?
Painting and early childhood just seem to fit, but why? Among the many reasons are sensory and cognitive development, and also the opportunity to take part in an age-old process.
Sensory development here means not just feeling and seeing the paint, but using the senses for pathways to learning. Painting is a sensual medium; paint flows, it drips, it can be sticky, smelly, and sometimes even tasty.
Feeding off the senses is cognitive development. Learning how to paint, experimenting with new brushes, strokes, or other painting materials expands children's understanding of the way the world works.
And painting, in different forms, has been around since the beginning of the cultural world. It is easy to see how painting connects children with the wider cultural and historical world. Painting links cavemen to Renaissance artists, and to the children in your nursery. It is a global and historical 'glue'.
How do we encourage and stimulate children's painting? The best way is simply to be involved. While paint is an incredibly motivating medium on its own, there is a limit to how long children will be inspired to explore its sensual properties, before they turn to the social, cultural and natural environments to stimulate their art-making.
Adult intervention in children's painting experiences, while a delicate affair, is vital. Early years educators should think of the support they lend as flexible and fluid, matching the needs of the child. Sometimes support needs to be solid, perhaps to advance a new skill, while at other times the support offered should merely follow the child's lead down the variety of pathways offered by paint.
Educators should also encourage children to recognise the inspiration available in the wider environment. Two inspiring areas are nature and the arts.
First, drawing on the natural environment, educators might stimulate painting experiences by asking children to reflect on colours or textures, and to find products in the environment they can use in the painting process - for example, paint could be applied with twigs, leaves or straws.
Second, all of the other arts - the visual arts, dance, music - are excellent sources for inspiration in painting. Children can be encouraged to see the connection between their endeavours and the work of those in the wider arts community. And works of art themselves can give rise to a number of different painting sessions. For example, try having children paint while listening to a slow piece of music, and feel the paint slowly slide along the surface of the paper. Or you could have children look at the work of Jackson Pollock (see the website www.artcyclopedia.
com) and invite them to create their own drip paintings. You could even use movement - encourage children to dance while they paint, and enable the use of the entire body in the painting experience.
By now it should be obvious why painting and the early years do fit together. What we as educators need to remember is why it is so important and how significant we are in keeping that fit perfect. NW
