Every child an artist?

When I was about 13, the art teacher explained some technique to the class. He looked at me and asked if I could do it. I said 'Yes' and he said ' well, if J.. can do it , anyone can do it!' Nowadays, everyone remarks on how arty I am and can't believe the story. It still upsets me though - but I feel I have won the point!

I don't think Picasso was speaking 'well-intentioned bollocks.' Idealist yes, but then depends on how you interpret 'artist' I guess. I do think creativity needs nurture.

I've never suffered low self-esteem which is just as well considering. At 6 or 7 I'd a teacher who paraded me into every class in my (fortunately small) primary school to hold up my painting of trees (which I was very proud of) and show everyone how bad it was. At 10 I wrote the end of term play, which the whole school performed, and my parents flatly refused to believe it was all my own work. At 11 I was tapped on the shoulder and asked to leave the school choir I'd just joined. At 12 I danced a solo in the school Christmas concert and my parents didn't come to watch because they didn't care for dance. They didn't go in much for fulsome praise in the North East of those days! I should really be a snivelling wreck hiding behind the sofa. Instead of confidently believing I'm okay at stuff really. I'm probably completely deluded.

Our least self-confident child is a graphic designer, so all those lines of dripping paintings strung across the kitchen must have paid off. We still have on display a little bust of an old man, warts and all, that she brought home from school in Y5. It was the spitting image of our neighbour.

But don't lose sight of the fact that Picasso's statement was well-intentioned bollocks. Never close a door on a child. Well, not unless she shows an interest in folk dancing or incest. But not everybody has potential to succeed at everything.

But don't lose sight of the fact that Picasso's statement was well-intentioned bollocks. Never close a door on a child. Well, not unless she shows an interest in folk dancing or incest. But not everybody has potential to succeed at everything.

We have mounted and framed a picture that my 9 year old gd did. It hangs in the sitting room and is called Mona Lisa with a fat neck. My gd who is now 22 is pleased as punch and we are hoping it's going to make millions sometime.. She still draws and paints a little now and again,

Please OP, go easy on us parents and teachers. I've handed out literally millions of enthusiastic well done's, aren't you clever's, how lovely's over the years. Will any of these get remembered? But that one home-truth I gave on a long, wet Thursday afternoon when my back was hurting and the headmaster was on one? That ends up the title of the autobiography.
Look, low self-esteem is rampant among us girlies. (Apologies to all Grandpa's reading this) We pass it on to kids because we have so much of ourselves!

Neither should parents say 'I was never any good at...' .

I remember my Mum holding up a picture I had drawn for the rest of the family to laugh at when I was about 5. I decided then that I wouldn't draw any more. Now I sometimes draw for my grandson, I think actually I could be reasonably good if I practised. I always encouraged my children and they both took GCSE art.

I read somewhere that most adults are stuck at a 3 year old in terms of Art development due to adults reactions when younger. Creativity comes in all shapes and forms!

I think that creativity, like so many other things in life, goes hand in hand with curiosity. “I wonder what would happen if ...?” “What can I do with this ...?” The biggest crime, in my view is not spending the time with a child in shared exploration...

Elrel I was scarred by a couple of teachers. I know that informed my own teaching--having just left the profession, I hope I will be remembered as kind.

Newnanny - At 9 or 10 we were asked to write a poem about Autumn for homework so I did. Next day the teacher went through them in class with comments but not mine. I saw my book was put aside and began to feel embarrassed that she might be going to praise me too much. Not she! She told me in front of the class that I hadn't written it, that I must have copied it from a book. It was only four lines but scanned and had rhymes. Hardly worth either my shocked humiliation or my loss of respect for her. Next day my DM's note didn't elicit an apology.
I hope I never made a pupil feel like that.

At school assembly my headmaster read out my name and said I had the lowest mark for Art in the whole school. I got 35%! It was humiliating. I am definitely not an artist. I furiously encouraged my children and my daughter achieved higher art. I love encouraging my wee grandson in his drawing and putting together of cardboard boxes. My fridge is covered with his efforts. No child should be derided for poor ability in anything. A little encouragement goes a long way.

I too have witnessed parents ridiculing their children’s work, the crushed and confused little faces are awful to see. Even if the work isn’t brilliant, the criticism should be constructive not destructive

GD has always been a good little artist, started drawing before she could talk. She could draw horses at three which impressed me, I still can't.

My favourite original is a picture of me with a baby and a football inside me. When I enquired my three year old said "You keep saying the baby is kicking, he must have a football"
He is now 34 and the baby 30!

My kitchen door is full of my GCs' pictures. I love & treasure them all. I failed my Art A level, told I'd never be 'good enough at art' but I enjoyed every picture I made. At 59yrs old I got destinction in Art & Design Hons degree.
Not only did the course include painting & drawing but also screen printing, textiles, ceramics, art history, lots of research/written work & art shows. I loved it & was worth the wait. Wish I could meet that art teacher now. (Smug look).

I agree that it is shocking not to thank a child for something they have made and give you. We all have had countless gifts we did not know what to do with, but kept for years because some dear child had made it at kindergarten or school.

A realistic evaluation of someone's capabilities as an artist, musician, dancer or sportsman or woman is surely only necessary if a child is considering at senior school level whether they could make a career at whatever it is they love doing. Here it is sometimes sadly necessary to tell children or their parents that they are perhaps not quite good enough to make the grade.

This should be done as kindly and tactfully as possible. I have always tried to say something along the lines of it being very hard to make the grade in the artistic professions, but that anyone who really cannot visualize doing anything else and being happy at it, should at least see if they can get into the relevant college.

All school children in my professional opinion have quite a lot of things they are good at, and grown- ups talking to children choosing senior school subjects or careers should point out all the things they are good at, and what they could do with the subjects they are best at.

Smaller children should be encouraged to do the things that interest them; most will either loose interest in the things they are not really good at, or keep them on as hobbies and enjoy them all their lives.

Well my gd is NOT artistic and have had many a cross word with her art teacher when she was at secondary school. We went on google to get help with certain drawings.

I am running an art holiday in Portugal this week and the students are varied in their experience but we are all enjoying sketching then experimenting back at the villa. I have run many classes and holidays over the years and have had many students who, on retirement, take up art and tell me they were told they were no good at school but had always harboured a desire to 'do some art' I think being creative in some form is a natural human response and sometimes it just needs a little encouragement to shine through. My students are using some leaves to print backgrounds with at the moment and enjoying themselves immensely, just give yourself permission to play and enjoy!

Too often there is expectation that any painting or drawing should 'be' something. We ask 'what is it', or 'is that a tree/seaside/mummy?' For young children a painting is usually an experience - of colour, texture and movement. Its this expectation that makes us think we are rubbish at 'art' as we get older and stops us from having a go and enjoying the moment as we did when a small child. Its better to ask children about the colours, what they did, how they felt and, sometimes, and you will be surprised, what it was and what it became comes out of the discussion!

As a young teacher I remember one mother collecting her small child who was wearing a mask he had made that day. Instead of pretending to be scared or not recognising him she just said - "Oh - your shoe lace is undone." Even I felt disappointed!

I would say I have never had much of an artistic bent, and my photography is a bit straightjacketed compared to many, but it is still a creative hobby and I am doing well at it

I do so agree Imperfect. My mother was talented and two of my three siblings but I struggled and still do to draw a circle that joins up. My pictures were dismissed as rubbish and I watched my much younger sibling constantly praised and her artwork carefully saved. School was no better and I was told my work was useless. Nobody ever discovered that I was quite good at modelling, no not that sort of modelling, the kind that enables me to make entertaining celebratory cakes but I still see myself as hopeless at 'art'. All my offspring are talented artists and appreciate what little I can do.