Every Child is an Artist

One of the most famous quotes by Picasso is: “Every child is an artist; the problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up”. This quote really resonates with me, as art has always been a passion of mine. Time and time again, I see people stop chasing their dream to become an artist due to their adult life bills, work etc. Anyone that knows me well, knows how much I love creating Art.

My motto in life is, I would rather try and fail than give up. One must fail to learn from their mistakes to reach their goal. This is why I have never given up and still working towards my goal of being a full-time artist. I would hate to be in my 70s and regret the fact I didn’t follow my dreams and essentially wasted my talent. For the last couple of months, I have been a freelance teacher, teaching Art & Design to young people at Brook House Primary School.

This has been a brilliant experience, as the children have the artistic, exploratory nature that a lot of adults lack or suppress due to major life challenges and responsibilities. For the first lesson, I introduced the students to different artists, for them to use as inspiration and explore the artist’s techniques.

It was very important to me to introduce different range of artists to the students. This is because I wanted them to have the option to pick the artist they are most inspired by and would like to study.

The artists were:

“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul .”

“Painting is a blind man’s profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen.”

“Experience was my only teacher; I knew little of the modern art movement. When I first saw the works of the Impressionists, van Gogh, van Dongen, and Fauves, I admired it. But I had to seek the true way alone.”

“It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.”

“My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person.”

“I’m very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you’re painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.”

“I work with nature, although in completely new terms.”

“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing… they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question ‘What does that mean’? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”

“I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.”

“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”

“Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.”

“I have established the semaphore of Suprematism. I have beaten the lining of the colored sky, torn it away and in the sack that formed itself, I have put color and knotted it. Swim! The free white sea, infinity, lies before you.”

They had the chance to learn more about the artist of they chose by learning about their history and also exploring the techniques.

We then moved on to learn about different types of art movements such as:

·      Abstract Art

·      Abstract Expressionism

·      Surrealism

·      Pop Art

·      Realism   

·      Post-Impressionism

·      Op Art

·      Cubism

·      De Stijl

I always make sure, I instil in my students that an artist’s work should be only used as inspiration, not to copy. As I would like them to develop their own style of painting. The project theme was “Still Life”. Below are the stunning paintings created by the students on my programme.