I would describe a control barrier as a natural fustration that is linked with your upbringing and your experiences in art.
I think they are quite historic, and i think the better we can identify them, then we can challenge ourselves to stop letting them take over the experience.
My art barrier was always wasting paint, it comes from never having paint at home, not the kind you can tip from a bottle, so to see someone waste this resourse i personally never had any experiences with as a child made it very difficult for me to see wastage.
But i have worked on it and made ways to accept and teach children that do not think about wastage.
In the past i might have stopped children in there tracks and sent them away, completely stopping the first experiences because of my problem.
What i should have been focussing on was children's facial expressions, children's concentration and children's involvement because this was all there in a tipping momment.
Now i teach printmaking, for what can be tipped and poured can be transfered and absorbed, you just need the right materials.
All good art stations should have a range of sponges handy.
Then there is the follow through of learning, if that is an interest set it up, just last week i noticed that the eye droppers are difficult to use if you have not had much practise so i put different dyes in the water trough in jars and invited children to a practise session.
For older children i like to make some rules, such as you can not change the colours in the tall jars, but you can make your own colours in the short jars.
For infants and toddlers no rules apply, different ages different experimental processes.
Now you might think that this opens up the opportunity for chaos at the art table next time you get them out, but it has the opposite effect, it enforces different situations and different techniques and helps children to think about the difference in situations.
It helps children to realise that some prefer a dry work station, so they need to move to an area or space on the table where others are happy for a wet surface.
I believe it all comes down to divergent thinking and knowing your limits, understanding your limits, teaching your limits, but learning to be flexible with your limits.
Give the control to our children, it is there education, it is there chance to be able to make mistakes and learn how to correct them, powder paints are a fantastic resourse for children to learn about water consistancy and mixing, let them choose if they will make them runny or thick.
True artists are skilled at finding new ways to use the same materials, that is what makes us notice art in the first place, it is the wow factor, and it makes you think and feel differently about a piece of art.
It is the thinking factors we need to be on board with to understand how artists get there pieces.
Children have this natural curiosity and perhaps we have been teaching them to unlearn it.
Teachers may be the ones that have it wrong.
Here are some great photos of a session at Play and Learn in Clarks Beach.
Our medium was the tempura blocks.
Now these blocks are amazing, one of my favourites to use with children, but do we get all uptight about how to use them, because i have to say they are not really appreciated in my setting and i am on a mission to change that.
So lets get experimental i say, lets get playful, lets discover the true potential of all the colour potentials of these paints.
How do we do that, in this setting we add water, we allow tipping, rubbing, we offer brushes without the expectation they will be used, we offer absorbant rollers that will not crush the materials.
Why? because the best discoveries come from trying materials out with no expectations.
It is easy enough to go and get a dry piece of paper if you decide you want to try out the colours away from the experimental, but if you just offer one way to try, half the time these resourses sit unused.
Happy art making
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