19/11/2025
Class 4 continue their exploration into the animal kingdom, they painted a beaver and her kit.
The painting technique is called ‘wet on wet’ or ‘wet in wet’ and it is of great importance in our curriculum. It requires patience, which in turn develops the skill of the child in working with the medium. Our ambition here isn’t to create marvellous works of art; we aren’t looking for ‘good’ or ‘brilliant-that looks amazing’ paintings.
We don’t mind how they end up (although they are always aesthetically pleasing as the child grows) , what we want to do is develop our patience and a ‘breathing in, breathing out rhythm’. We are experiencing the colours: the movement and flow of the water, the interaction of colours, together on the paper.
After we have finished, our paintings are put to dry in the drying rack and left to sit in the classroom over night. Morning comes and as part of our circle time (verse, songs, flutes and candle) we will review our work. There are no names on the paintings and children walk round desks looking at the anonymous works.
‘How happy this feels’, ‘how golden is this yellow’, ‘look at the beautiful colours and how they’ve moved together’, ‘I can see this person worked so hard on this form’. Children hear other children saying good and useful things about their work, it’s special seeing the impact that has on the children.
Paintings are hung on the wall, as an unspoken reminder, to each individual child that they can create beautiful things and they can paint their space; make the walls (classroom, school) beautiful. Children are reminded about how they were patient with the colour and even patient with themselves. Children recall and they see that they have the ability to turn paint and colour into something that makes sense, and has form, and speaks to others around them. Children learn that they have a good and meaningful contribution to make to the world around them, even in the smallest of brushstrokes.
