Despite attempting to be a minimalist of sorts, I am so thankful I have saved my best inherited and collected vintage objects because selfishly, I can watch my students paint my belongings. On my way to the classroom, I just grabbed a box and loaded it with odds and ends. The kids were really excited for this display of weird old things. They loved the objects I chose and they worked so hard we had to take two days to work on our paintings. I was impressed with their dedication and even some of the rowdier boys displayed amazing attention spans and really excellent drawing skills. I directed the children to draw big so we didn't have teensy objects on such a large page. They were encouraged to choose what objects they wanted to focus on in their paintings, imagine their own patterns and add their own personal touch otherwise. We used an odd type of tempera paint that dries shiny, small-to-medium brushes and a medium-weight paper. I thought the results were incredible!
Kids work so intuitively between how they compose their paintings, to their color choices. It's really helpful for me to witness that for my own practice. During the last few weeks, my paintings have been so much more intuitive and serendipitous and I'll thank the kids for that.