2013 kids' art classes at C.S.Lawrence Art Studio

can you believe it? a room full of kids..and you could hear a pin drop!!

I strongly recommend any artist spending some time working with kids. I personally find my art classes with kids to be the funnest part of my busy work schedule. They are an inspiration. They are fearless in their determination to tackle any task I present them with. That is, those who have not already been influenced by negative feedback from either parents, school teachers or peers. Those kids who have had their innate creative impulse stalled will show reluctance to go out of the lines or get their hands dirty. You kidding? A 5-7 year old reluctant to get their hands dirty? Yep. It happens. But generally, it doesn't last long in my classes. They soon loosen up and get back on track allowing themselves to enjoy the unrestrained pleasure of being creative. 

Many times I will look at them and see parts of myself reflected back: the carefree energized creative spirit willing to surrender control and let the artwork speak for itself and the hesitant  controlling spirit  intent on staying well within the boundaries of a safety net. 

After Picasso by Juliana Zammit

One of my favourite quotes attributed to Picasso is: "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." In my years of working with kids I have  noticed that the age at which they start to lose their uninhibited self-confidence and become more self-conscious is around nine years. Unfortunately I have also noticed a progressive shift downwards whereby even younger kids manifest signs of uncertainty about their creative genius. Maybe they're growing up faster. That's why this year I have started accepting 5-6 year olds into the fold and have been pleasantly surprised at how well they integrate with the older 7-12 year kids. Being primarily a portrait painter part of the drawing exercises I introduce them to is proportional representation and at times I wonder if I shouldn't let them be. Given that the contemporary art world, following in the wake of Picasso's legacy to stay in touch with the "child within", appears to favour art which looks at best childish, am I smothering kids' creativity by showing them how to draw "properly"? After all, the modern art world is full of adult artists striving to paint like kids! I think not. I am convinced that an artist needs to know how to draw well before he or she can successfully indulge in deconstructing art. At the heart of drawing well is learning how to SEE. Therefore whether or in not my efforts to teach children to draw accurately I am stifling their naivety which so many modern artists aspire to emulate, at least these kids are learning to observe their environment and notice things,be it colours or forms. Too often I am astonished, while tutoring adults, at how little they actually SEE colours and forms around them.

Sample of kids' collage art: what a fantastic sense of humour!

To dissipate my concern about stifling the cheerful spontaneity evident in these young artists' way of representing things, I set exercises in deconstructing representational art. This is where collage art, which I love, comes into its own. The comical is the primary objective and the kids go for it with a passion. In many instances I feel the artworks being produced in these classes could and should be submitted to modern art galleries, and would (with the artist's age concealed) be readily accepted.

There is a certain dis-ingenuity about the modern art world's love affair with naive "childish" painting in which adult artists can enjoy success in the wake of art critics' endorsements for their painting like children do, when children who produce as good as, if not better, art must wait till they "grow up" ..(and by which time they may have lost that element of authenticity in their creative work) to be acknowledged as artistic geniuses.

In the painting below, 7 year-old Zoey Scerri  has reinforced my conviction that exposing children to art and encouraging them to express themselves without judgement or control through this medium is one of-if not THE best way-to build self-confidence in children: of all the captions she could have chosen while trawling through magazines to define her composition, there it is emblazoned in amidst all the comical incongruity:

"I MATTER"

"I MATTER" by Zoey Scerri

View kids art video 2007-2010 on youtube

View Kids Art 2011 on my Picasa Album. Click here
 
View Kids Art 2012 on my Picasa Album. Click here