我的小小天地 my little music

I will just briefly list them down first for your reference. I promise to elaborate on them further and relate them to how art facilitates such developments.

10 essential qualities to develop in children

• independence
• confidence and tenacity
• courageous and responsible
• ability to communicate and socialize
• ability to manage assets and finances
• self motivated and ability to self learn
• creative and innovative 
• ability to relate and apply what they learn
• emotional control, commpassionate and loving
• connected and engaged being

What we have here is a lively study made on a couple of bottles by YaoJu.It has a strong sense of presence in the sketch, a nice variation of strokes and shading to depict the subject and a good overall treatment of atmosphere.While most people are concerned about the neatness of the work, and use it as a basis of judgement of good work of children art or not, I think otherwise. It is more important to stimulate the kid’s keen observation and expressiveness, and build their sense of confidence in themselves, rather than achieving those ‘dead’ static ‘qualities’ we so often find in taught/drilled art classes. I call those fake achievements of art.

Isn’t it a wonderful painting by Helene?She was given a short demo on how to mix the greens based on yellows and blue (because she was not given any green to work from intentionally). Thereafter she was pretty much on her own.The short demo looked like this:As you can see, it bares no resemblance on what she had to observe and express.It is important that we as art educators, refrain from doing demos that provide clues to our interpretation of what lays before these young explorers. The moment some form of ‘answer’ is provided to them, you will find it amazingly difficult to work them out of it later. I am a big advocate of art as a fundamental building block in educating an individual. It is paramount to recognize that I do not have preconceived expectation of each kid on what they draw.So long as they get engaged, play seriously, and learn from their adventures, they will eventually go somewhere worthwhile and interesting. I consider myself very lucky to be able to participate in their adventure. Here’s a picture of what Helene was working on. What Helene brought to us is way more than just a photographic image of the subject. Bravo!

All of the kids are making great progress. Take a look at their fabulous works.

YiYing is 9 years old.

this was where you started 4 months back in may.

Wow. It has been 5 months since I introduced the workshop.
Curious as to how Yida has changed over this period of time, I placed him on the same subject he started off with.
Interesting.

Here’s a close up look at the recent study.

It is not difficult to see how much he has progressed in terms of his observational skills.
On the most immediate side of things, his sketch has become much more alive, spatial and playful.
Most importantly, the marks left by the charcoal reflects a search by him looking at the subject matter with a beginner’s mind. This is the fundamental practice critical to all sense of wonder and discoveries.

Good work Yida! Wishing you best to your PSLE.

Here’s Yida at work recently.

Kindly be informed that there will be no workshops on 22 & 29 Sept.
I am away on a research trip.
Keep sketching, keep doodling with your eye marveling at our world.

To do still-life studies is not about painting/drawing them like photographs or forcing then into perspective drawings. We do not SEE perspective, that is a construction. The crux of doing still-life study is really about the sensitization and re-sensitization of the eye, and the conditioning of the mind to re-learn and re-interprete.

When a kid draws from nature/still-life, the process demands that he looks at the subject before drawing rather than rely on a learnt idea of the subject. A learnt subject is pre-conclusive. For example, once a kids starts schooling, the figures they draw tends to have 10 fingers, eyes, mouth, nose, feet, toes, etc. It is not wrong, but is that what we see? It is not easy to invite kids in that stage to look at nature again and discover the wonder of our phenomenal world because the power of knowledge is overwhelming them.

If you cannot see the phenomenal world as it appears to us, how are you to discover new things around you?

So the process of doing still-life draws the kid back to looking again. By doing so, they will re-discover the world with a keen eye. When the vision becomes sensitive once again, they will see the world with a whole new experience, something that most people have already taken for granted and seized to see (without realizing it).

Below is just an example of how a simple set of dumbbells can appear so differently when one is ready to receive it/see it in the eyes of a child.

First and foremost, I am an Artist, an Educationalist, and a father of two lovely kids whom I adore and learn much from, and a whole lot of other things.
The reason for my starting of the art studio is a very simple one — I want to create an avenue that I can share with others uninhibitedly the wonderfully rich world that art has put me in touch with. It is not about money, glory, power, politics nor career, it is solely Art for Art sake, and art for the love of ourselves and life.
i am heavily involved as an art educator in a tertiatry education. all my friends, colleagues, associates always knew me as a creative person, an artist an a very vocal educator. amongst them, those who are parents tend to share with me their worries over their child’s art education in school (especially so for pre-school, primary up to secondary (grade 1 - 10 in U.S. system) levels).

Here are some of the most common problems they encounter:
1) my child cannot draw
2) my child loves to draw, but the teacher might not understand the needs of my child nor appreciate what he does
3) I know my child has talent in art but I do not know how to guide him/her
4) the art lessons in my child’s school are always replaced by math and sciences, what can I do?
5) my child is not creative
6) my child hates art
7) how can my child learn to draw like Piccaso, Van Gogh, etc?

I understand the problems and can empathize with them.
Hence after almost 3 decades of deep search and constant practice in art (both the fine arts as well as appllied arts), I have decided that it is time for me to share what I have gathered so far.
Doing art is a basic right of every human being. It is a fundamental building block in life, development of the mind, and holistic being. It is thus sad that the education in art is so badly executed and greatly misunderstood, resulting in a great many people in our society fearing ART - a quality that is already in each of us.
I have decided one fine day that I have seen enough. I have to do my part. Hence the birth of this workshop initiative.

As a parent, it is important to recognize when your kid is in a train of thoughts. These are very precious moments that we should be as passive as possible in our observation and not disturb the child.
The child may be thinking of an idea, in wonderment of something. Whatever it may be, it is very important. These days, many kids don’t do enough of that. They are constantly in a flux of entertainment so much so that they become passive in their imagination and thoughts.
This is also partly caused by the fact that kids are not given enough personal time to develop their ability to dream. Tuition, lesson, extra-curricular activities, homework, TV, computer games, etc etc. The brain needs a break.

Slow down. There’s a lot out there we are missing as adults.
A child experiences the here and now.