Art teacher, mother and grandmother Annette Gadsby shares tips and links for bringing out the artist in very young children, and explains why ‘visual literacy’ is so important
Our 4-year-old grandson’s favourite artwork is a copy of a Fra Angelico painting. I’m not sure whether it’s the gold leaf or the image and colours that attract him, but when you ask him what his favourite painting in our lounge room is, he carefully looks around and chooses that one.
At John Colet we display roughly 20 reproductions from medieval art to Contemporary and ask the child to choose one. The very young are asked. “What can you see”? and “Why did you choose that picture”? They always take a long time to choose, often carefully examining each artwork before they make their choice. It is interesting to see what they choose as it tells us something about them.
Visual Literacy is important to