The Benefits of Process Art

Process art focuses on the process of creating the art rather than the final product. Free of expectations, not worried about following a set of instructions, a child can explore untethered to a final outcome. They are scientists experimenting and seeing what happens.

Let’s take a closer look at the example of experimenting with water colors. Nothing in particular to paint. No instructions. The child can see what happens when colors mix. How shades of color change from dark to light with more or less water.

The child can form big lines, small lines, curved, pointy, circles. For grown ups concerned with learning to form letters, this exploration helps give the child the experience and confidence to make lines and curves without the pressure and expectation of what a letter should look like. There’s also spacing. Some of our colors in the painting are close together and some are far apart. This language and experience of spacing will come in handy with early writing as well when we talk about how our letters should have spaces between them.

When you to go to speak with your child about their art, try saying things like

 “I see you worked really hard on this, look at all those details!” “I see straight lines, and circles, and curvy lines. There are lots of colors, red, green, blue. Thank you for sharing your art with me. Do you want to tell me anything about your picture?” This rich interaction will motivate your child’s art more than saying “I love it!”

Pinterest perfect product oriented activities have a place in our rotation too, but not to the detriment of open ended art. The importance of process art and unstructured activities in early childhood education is huge! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic of Process Art. Please share your ideas, experiences, favorite activities or musings you may have.