Painting is about translating ideas into shape, line, and color. Through experimentation and practice, students learn to mix all the colors they need to use for their painting ideas. Given a palette of red, yellow, blue, black, and white paint, students learn that there is an infinite variety of colors available to them. Colors can be light or dark, and more or less intense. Lines can be thick, thin, wiggly, straight, curved or sharp. Shapes can be big, small, round, angular, overlapping, touching, or far apart. As they mature and become more competent using paint, students also learn how to incorporate texture into their paintings, by varying their brush strokes and the thickness of the paint. The challenge for students is to figure out their own ways to combine all of these possibilities in their paintings.

Barbara Gordon

Barbara Gordon