Image of the Week: Spiral Snake
© D. Yael Bernhard
Every week for the past sixteen months, I've had the privilege of teaching art to two homeschoolers. Both kids, a brother and sister, are eager to paint and draw – in their own way. Twelve-year-old Maya does meticulous work (below left), patiently applying color to tightly defined shapes, and articulating detail as intricate as jewelry. I love her radiating pastel colors! Nine-year-old Seiya immerses himself in visual play, his pictures taking shape with childish charm, uncannily capturing the spirit of the subject. He struggles a bit with curves, and is still learning to control the movement of the tool in his hand.
We have a great time making art together! I do whatever I want, experimenting with my eager accomplices. I encourage these budding artists to think outside the box, but inside the realm of the masters who precede us – who also thought outside the box, each in their own way. I also experiment on these young artists, shamelessly exposing them to the artists of my choice – such as the richly saturated spiral painting by Paul Klee shown at the bottom of this post – to see how the influence will emerge in their work – as well as on myself, for I always work on a piece of my own alongside my students.
Kids are attracted to things that are little and cute – little books, little dolls, little toy cars, little houses. So when my eye landed on some little 8" square canvases at my local art supply store a few weeks ago, I grabbed them. This was a perfect opportunity for practicing compositions in curves: spirals that would fit easily in a small square. Invite children to draw something in a cubby or a nest, and their imaginations take off.
So did mine! I didn't anticipate the spiral snake that emerged, coiling through my divided field of blues, browns, and reds. I added the eyes, the tongue, and the tail last. What fun!
These are the moments when I consider myself most fortunate, to be able to indulge in this sort of play (and get paid to boot!). But in a way it's no indulgence, for these are the wellsprings that feet the creative process. Every artist must engage in some kind of practice to keep their work fresh. We must nourish the soil from which our creative seeds grow. Drawing and painting with children and for children is like planting cover crop – it shoots up fast, innocent and uninhibited; its pure green youth is an inspiration, feeding the soil with its readily available nutrients.
Maya and Seiya are learning, bit by bit, to handle acrylics, to choose the right brush, to gauge the amount of paint on their brush, to intuit the wetness of the paint, to create solid shapes, transparent washes, and blended gradients. No painting is final, I remind them – you can always do another one, another way, another time. Like a spiral that expands ever outward or curls ever inward, art has no end.
My little spiral snake is for sale, if anyone would like to give it a home.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
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