“Little Artists” is one of those classes you wish you had when you were a child. At Lutheran preschool, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds are read a story about a famous artist such as Georgia O’Keefe and then are taught to paint in the style of that artist.
The extracurricular art class was developed by preschool director Dede El-Atrache and is taught by Daryl Lohmeyer, the director of youth and family ministry at Palisades Lutheran Church.
“Structure and academics are great but only when complemented by creativity,” El-Atrache said, adding that in addition to O’Keefe, other artists studied include Jackson Pollock, Gustav Klimt, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Emily Carr, Wassily Kandinsky, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
“We also do cave painting,” said Lohmeyer, explaining that children make their own paint from lard and colored dirt, but more importantly, the process is important because of the tactile aspect.
Although Lohmeyer is not an artist, his brother is an artist and photographer who exhibits at the Sea Coast Gallery in Carlsbad. Lohmeyer also stepped into the art world when his 6-year-old son James, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, was given art therapy as one of the tools to develop fine motor coordination, using everything from large paint brushes to Q-tips.
“Dede is more structured and I’m more experiential,” said Lohmeyer, who feels that their different approaches are one of the reasons for their good partnership.
“Every fall the preschool talks about animals and our art project is a cow parade art installation [visit: cowparade.com],” Lohmeyer said. “Children are each given a small resin cow and decorate it. One child, whose name is Cash, glued pennies all over his cow and called it a ‘cash cow.’ Another child painted her cow pink and put jewels on it, creating a ‘princess cow.’”
For the lesson on Matisse, they trace around their hand, cut it out and then put it on paper, learning about positive and negative space. They also paint on glass after learning about the cathedral Chapelle du Rosaire, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel.
Since Pollock used house paint in his drawings, that’s also the medium that the preschoolers use. “I tell them that Pollock made his paint dance,” said Lohmeyer, who allows the children to take off their socks and shoes and wear smocks during the painting process. “When they learned about Hundertwasser, we painted the background first and I taught them how to blend the colors.”
After the kids create their own piece, using good quality supplies so the art they produce is durable, they work together on a group piece. The art is displayed in the lobby of the Lutheran Church auditorium for parents and parishioners to see. Individual pieces go home, but the group piece is sold at a silent auction fundraiser.
“I was so impressed with the quality and range of the art produced by these little kids last year,” parishioner Joanne Fife told the Palisadian-Post.
Examples of the art produced by the kids can be seen in the “Little Artists” section on the preschool’s Web site: Palisadeslutheranpreschool.org.
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