Experience and Art: Teaching Children to Paint

Nancy R. Smith contributed to the field of art education with the first edition of Experience & Art . In this new edition, her colleagues continue her work, emphasising the teacher’s active role in fostering a developmental understanding of painting in children from ages one and a half to eleven. The book is divided into three major parts. Learning the Elements traces the transition from experimentation with movement on paper to initial use of line, shape and colour, and the ability to combine the various elements into elaborate patterns and design. First Representations discusses the origin of the connection that occurs between configurations on paper and objects in the real world and leads eventually to the ability to select a particular theme and make a drawing. Picture Experience , in which children come to understand paintings as descriptions of their interests and activities, shows how to progress from simple images to richer symbols and finally to the full use of metaphor and artistic style in expressing complex life experiences.