Four Year Olds Learn to Paint with Dot, Dot, Seurat

The four and five year olds in the Enrichment class at the Village Pre-School, 141 Greenwood Ave, have been dripping and dotting their artworks, a la “Masters” such as Seurat and Jackson Pollack. 

 Five year old  Gavin Malone said it was fun to paint like Pollack because “We got to stand up and drop paint. We wore garbage bags.  It was really funny.”

 Randi Rote, a teacher at the pre-school, said. “We want the children to know that art is not restricted to drawing and painting, there are many other mediums.  Often, those are the first things that get cut in public schools and we think it is important to get the kids exposed to art in their early education.”

 The program started with a $640 grant from the Bethel Education Foundation, and at the end of the year, it will fund a field trip to the museum in Ridgefield.  “It has already paid for materials, cameras and books for children,” Rote said. 

 “We started them with a discussion about what an artist is, and over two to three months, we are studying a different and unique artist each week.  We learn about different artists that use all different types of medium.  We read about them and then the students make a piece of artwork in that style.  They remember the artist and talk about it when they get home,” Rote said.  

 Dressed in garbage bags to help protect their clothing, the children set out to create a painting in Jackson Pollack’s style.  Last week, Rote featured Pollack, and after reading about his life and work, the children splattered and splashed a canvas until it was covered in colors.  “They truly created a masterpiece they could be proud of,” Rote said.

 The class is being piloted in the Enrichment class and will be brought through the entire school next year.   Other artists being featured include Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe,  Ansel  Adams, Robert Munsch and Henri Matisse.

 When asked who their favorite artist was, Valentina Fernandez, 5, responded, “Dot, Dot, Seurat.  I made a beach.”  

 Little Thomas Pomazi, 4, agreed. He said,  “We did Dot, Dot, Seurat and we did drip, drip.  I used a lot of red, blue and green paint!”

 Rote said they are all looking forward to the next few weeks when the children will become sculptors, photographers and mobile creators.  “This is the first time this unit has been given in pre-school, and they really concentrate.  A lot of them want to keep going, they don’t want to stop,” Rote said.  “They seem to really be enjoying it.”