(Village school Assembly in Kumaon Hills, India.)
Much has been said about ‘Education and the Child’ from Rousseau’s Emile to the present day. It is slowly emerging that Art in the curriculum should be the cornerstone of modern education. Herbert Reid and Devi Prasad respectively, have expounded this in their writings in ‘Education through Art’, and, ‘Art: the basis of Education.’
Picasso said the same thing in different ways: “It took me a life time to paint like a child,” and more directly, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Paramjeet says she learns art from her little son, and learns more about her son through his art!
“He painted a tree trunk blue,” she said. “I asked him why?”
“It was raining,” he explained. “Rain water was coming down the tree trunk – it was very wet – water is blue – so I painted the trunk blue.”
Paramjeet studies at Art Kendra.
This busy child is not the slave to realism. She needs four eyes, two to keep track of brushing her hair and two to keep track of simultaneous teeth brushing. What could be more expressive! This Picasso-like black crayon self-portrait, 12 x 18 inches is by a 6 year old girl.
(Drawing courtesy of Frank Wachowiak & Ted Ramsay.)
“In Art, every generation must start again afresh.” Maurice De Vlaminck (1876 - 1968).
