Water-Color Painting in the First Five Grades by Faith Burch

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

Water-Color Painting in the First Five Grades

By Faith Burch

WITH the hope of giving some suggestion that may benefit some one else, I will briefly outline the work we have attempted this year in water-color painting in the first five grades.

Friday afternoon, after recess, is the period allotted for this work. Each child is provided with a box of Prang’s water-color paints, 3 a, containing four dishes of paint—ultramarine or blue, carmine or red, mineral yellow, and charcoal gray. (This costs here twenty-five cents. The Milton Bradley Company offer a color outfit for fifteen cents which is recommended, though I have not tried it, being fully satisfied with the other.)

He has also a white water-color pad (costing fifteen cents here; in some places this can be obtained for ten cents), a cup for water, some old, soft cloths, and two or more brushes. Two brushes are supplied with the color box. Additional ones may be purchased for from thirty to seventy-five cents a dozen, or for five cents apiece when bought singly.

The first lesson distinguished between shades and tints, the principal fact brought out being that everything lighter than the pure color was a tint, and everything darker a shade; that water used more or less freely produced the various tints, while the admixture of charcoal gray with the pure color in greater or less degree gave shades.

They also learned in this lesson not to scrub with their brushes, but to use a smooth, steady stroke instead; to change the water in their little cups as soon as colored; to wash their brushes carefully after using, drying them on a clean, soft cloth.

The next lesson taught the combination of colors (primary colors: red, blue, yellow. Secondary colors: green, orange, violet, indigo), and that the secondary colors were mixed from the primary ones as follows: Yellow and blue make green; blue and red make purple; red and yellow make orange. By experiment we learned that light green required more yellow than blue, while dark green was just the opposite. This lesson may be correlated with one on light very well, and a prism will prove useful in explanation. It is well in the smaller grades to introduce this lesson by having a language lesson on the rainbow story to precede it.

In lesson three each pupil was given a cluster of cherries which he was required to paint, the teacher first painting from a similar model, but not permitting the pupils to copy her work. (Leaves, yellow and blue; cherries, red and yellow.)

Lesson four was to paint a few spears of mesquite grass, with one or two Chinese lettuce stems. This flower is much like the dandelion, but has a grasslike stem.

In lesson five the thistle was painted (leaves as before, but painted with a finer brush than the cherries), the purple flowers being produced by mixing red and blue.

In lesson six the model was the plum, the twig, leaves, and fruit being painted. This was somewhat harder, the curved stroke not being so easy to attain.

In lesson seven the apple was painted, the yellow being put on before the red; in lesson eight the wild Oregon grape; in lesson nine the golden-rod; in lesson ten, barley stalks; in lesson eleven a corn plant—root, ears, and stalk; in lesson twelve a group of potatoes. A robin’s nest with eggs, and fruits and vegetables not already used, would furnish good models for further lessons.

We have not yet attempted anything except fruits and flowers. We shall probably follow these with familiar trees—fir, cedar, maple, apple, etc.

The best of the work adorns the wall. In the first grade the pupils are permitted the colored crayons instead of the paint, but the paint is the nicest.

The principal value in these lessons I believe is the training of the powers of observation, the training of the hand, and the cultivation of a love for the beautiful. If these three objects are furthered, we may rest content, even though there be no wonderful or striking specimens of art produced.

FAITH BURCH.