Art in Action

I taught my first Art in Action class as a parent volunteer today. It was amazing. Part of the 3rd grade program, the lesson used Vermeer's Milk Maid for discussion and I talked to the kids about color, tints and shades and how shading makes paintings have a 3-D appearance. Then I demonstrated and they did a simple 6 color color wheel. It really brought me back to how exciting simple color mixing can be. I take "yellow and red make orange" so much for granted. To watch the kids faces light up as the two colors swirled together and made another color was so gratifying. And when they did it themselves they chuckled with delight. I guess for them it was like performing magic--"I can MAKE orange!"