How wonderful!

Gauguin c. 1895 playing a harmonium at Alphonse Mucha's studio at Rue de la Grande-Chaumière, Paris. (Photo taken by Mucha)

Just admiring

this painting by Gauguin.

Still Life with Profile of Laval
1886
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Genes Influence Young Children’s Human Figure Drawings and Their Association With Intelligence a Decade Later

Read the research from the project ran by King's College.

Wonderful idea from the Tinker Lab

Colander sculpture

Our spin art - all you need is salad spinner, paint, plastic lids and Blu-Tack

The Secrets of Paper temporary exhibition at the Loris Malaguzzi Centre

Artscience

People's Choice Award

David Maitland, UK

Willow up close

David photographed the crystallised chemical salicin, which comes from willow tree bark. Salicin forms the basis of the analgesic Aspirin – no doubt this is why some animals seek out willow bark to chew on.

Technical specification

Canon EOS 5D Mark II; 50x magnification on full frame sensor; Olympus BX51 microscope; 1/4 sec at 5x UPlanFL; ISO 50; Polarisation Microscopy.

by Artist in Residence at Exeter University, College of Engineering, Maths and Physics, Fluids Laboratory, investigating artistic flow visualisation. Visit website for more.

Recreating iconic paintings - Photographer Inge Prader recreates Klimt’s Golden Paintings

Unfortunately this series isn't for a younger audience (only half of the above painting and photo shown) but I think kids would have a lot of fun recreating iconic paintings that they've been able to choose themselves and to plan and source all the right clothes, materials and props. They can then assume the pose as a tableau vivant for their friends to sketch.

Winter celebration of light

Despite there being so little light through a European winter, Indy and I are still finding enough to photograph light through glass. We are working our way through Nana's incredible glass collection! And playing with our distorted glass lenses. Look at the beautiful colours we are seeing and the effects of the distorted glass.

Indy's started learning how to process photos - contrast/ sharpness/ exposure/ colour temperature - using the simple tools you get when you open a photo on the Mac: Preview-Tools-Adjust Color. Indy moves slider while I hold click. And we've been noticing how this simplifies the image.

We're discovering that there are so many possible variations when changing these parameters.

Richard Wilson’s 20:50 at the Saatchi Gallery

Richard Wilson's 20:50 had a wonderful effect on me many years ago when I experienced it - it really is an 'epic illusion' so I'm excited to hear that it's still on display today. The photo doesn't give the game away. 

The gallery tell us in fact that it is the only permanent installation and has been continuously shown in each of the gallery's venues since 1991.' Currently on display in Gallery 13, 'a room custom built for the piece' - don't miss the chance to go and experience it if you can.

Interesting young artists at the Saatchi Gallery

David Brian Smith - a big sheep man

I really like the playful way he uses colour in this painting with very modern tones introduced but within a more traditional, romantic palette that reminds me of the Impressionists.

Raffi Kalenderian - branching out into other animals

I'm interested in the way Raffi draws our attention to pattern and explores the beauty of patterns through simplifying form, flattening colour and choice of subject. It's interesting as well that because of this there is no sense of a light source in his paintings. 

Aesthetic codes and how they shape environment

Just reading this fascinating article by Patricia Tarr, Associate Professor in the faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Alberta Canada. It is a comparison of aesthetic codes in typical Canadian/ American preschools and Reggio Emilia preschools.  (We can add to the comparison the schools we went to as children in England, then and today.) 

Where did this cartoonified (to borrow the author's apt term) aesthetic come from? When was it born? How did it grow? How did it cross oceans? How does it compare to Victorian classrooms? And how can we help eradicate it?!

Strongly recommend reading the whole article, but an excerpt: 'Reggio educators include aspects of a home into the school: vases of flowers, real dishes, tablecloths, and plants. There is attention to design and placement of objects to provide a visual and meaningful context. The objects within the space are not simplified, cartoon like images that are assumed to appeal to children, but are "beautiful" objects in their own right. For example, dried flowers hang from the ceiling beams and attractive jars of beans and seeds are displayed on shelves in the dinning area of Arcobaleno Infant-Toddler Center.'

I think the words 'that are assumed to appeal to children' lead us to the root of the problem. Who assumed this? Like the rebranding of Saint Nicolas from historic green to Coca-Cola red, have we let people trying to sell us something (Walt Disney?) tell us what children like?

Who to trust? It seems the good ladies and men (we did find a male) of Reggio Emilia are trusting their 'inner child' and if so, so can we.

But Patricia has another suggestion:

'Art educators need to find ways to collaborate with early childhood teachers to critically examine the aesthetic codes which permeate their classrooms and then together find ways to create environments which support children's aesthetic and artistic development... Reggio has shown how partnerships between artist-teachers and early childhood educators can have a powerful impact on all the learning that occurs. Art educators can be challenged to take on the role of atelierista within a school, working as partners with teachers to support children to communicate their ideas visually, help to create provocative learning experiences, and design environments that enhance children's perceptual awareness and provide places for wonder, curiosity and the expression of ideas.'

Patricia recognises that the teacher might not have had their own aesthetic sensibilities nurtured as children. We wonder if every adult would have an aesthetic sensibility had they gone to school in Reggio Emilia or do genes play a decisive role? How can we test this on the community of adults in Reggio Emilia?

2012 study suggests discrimination of artistic styles not a higher cognitive function

Honeybees can discriminate between Monet and Picasso paintings

"Our study further suggests that discrimination of artistic styles is not a higher cognitive function that is unique to humans, but simply due to the capacity of animals - from insects to humans - to extract and categorize the visual characteristics of complex images.'

Loose Parts - Inspiring Play in Young Children

Today we received a wonderful gift from the lady who was really our Reggio mentor and massive inspiration in Singapore. It's called Loose Parts - Inspiring Play in Young Children. It is not only wonderful because it conveys its message predominantly in photos, but because the authors create a really useful framework for loose parts play with many mini case studies, interpreting and categorising children's intentions when they play with loose parts.

Here is their framework:

Senses

Colour
Texture
Sound

Creativity

Art
Design
Symbolic Play

Action

Movement
Transporting
Connecting/ Disconnecting

Inquiry

Construction
Investigation

Correlation

"Art has the power to disturb"

Reggio Emilia International Study Group 2016

Our lecture today, delivered by an experience Reggio Emilia atelierista was fascinating.

"Art has the power to disturb" she said before going on to explain that all civilisation has prized art as a form of expression. Every single one of us has creative potential and Loris Malaguzzi's idea of 100+ languages recognises that it is about finding your expressive language/s, which can't be achieved without being exposed to all those languages.

Art has the power to disturb and challenge. The actions of ISIS to destroy art show their response to that power.

Observations from our visit to a Montessori School in Valencia

We visited a Montessori School on the outskirts of Valencia today. It was a limited visit but the first time we have been into a Montessori school, and we don't know very much yet about Montessori, so we had a lot of questions we will seek to answer in the coming months. How much of what we observed is unique to this school - how much is universal to Montessori?

Divided learning

Materials are divide into Maths, English and Geography; they also have an art teacher. Are the days structured or do children follow their interests at their own pace? How are interests outside of these explored?

Self-correcting materials

They use self-correcting materials for the 3-6 year olds. The guide observes but will intervene if they notice the materials are being used incorrectly - what does that type of interaction look like?

The school owner believes the Montessori programme doesn't enable enough creative expression. We agree. She sought to resolve this by employing a Reggio-experienced Art teacher. But rather than acting like an atelierista, weaving the creative languages into all other explorations it seemed that art was still being thought of as a separate subject. Unfortunately, their Reggio-experienced Art teacher decided she wanted to become a Montessori guide instead! We found this really interesting.

Boarding

Maria Montessori believed in the importance of boarding from age 12 to develop independence. Daisy went to Boarding School. I didn't. What would we want for Indigo?

Naturally we had a lot of questions after leaving the school. In searching for answers we found this excellent article titled Montessori Myths: Misconceptions about Montessori Education from the Bala House Montessori School which is worth sharing.

A main overall concern with the Montessori approach is that whilst it encourages children to select which activity they want to pursue ('in a purposeful manner'), it still dictates the activities, and in so doing, decides what is worthy of pursuit and what isn't. Are all Montessori materials self-correcting and therefore closed-ended?

Reggio on the other hand insists on open-ended environments and providing 100+ opportunities for children to explore their 100+ languages, (partly achieved by making environments open-ended).