Benefits of the Outdoor Art Studio
Since moving from a traditional art room inside a school building to an outdoor art studio I’ve noticed a lot of changes in the ways my students create. My husband recently became very interested in and good at planting and caring for plants. He turned our backyard into a beautiful oasis just as I began teaching art classes out there. Perfect.
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SPACE: Some students just need to move more. It helps burn extra energy so they can return to their work focused and purposeful. I used to tell students who needed to burn some steam to do a lap outside and come back to class. This worked sometimes, but not always. Now students have the space to walk around the garden during class without having to ask. This fosters an atmosphere of trust: “I trust that you know what you need and am giving you the responsibility I know you can handle to do what it is you need to do.” Before there was ‘No Running’ in the art room to keep kids from colliding, tripping over chairs, bumping into working artists, or knocking finished work off the shelves. Now there’s space for students to run, skip, or trot safely to the dirty paintbrush station if they feel like it.
SPONTANEITY: The things we notice move through us and come out in our art in some way. Children's natural curiosity leads them to notice so, so many things. The more opportunities they have for noticing and absorbing details in their surroundings while making art the more spontaneous creative ideas they have. In our outdoor studio there are parrots squawking and flying by, bees buzzing, bugs crawling, wind moving shadows, and plants….so many plants…it’s a wealth of inspiration.
STILLNESS: Sitting in stillness is powerful. So often a hummingbird will stop by for a visit at the feeder. A student will usually say, “Sshh…look! a hummingbird!” and then, like magic, everybody stops for a silent, still moment and observes this tiny creature.
CONVERSATIONS: It was the first day of class and there were some pretty nervous kiddos. An outgoing student noticed this and says, “I have an idea! Let’s all choose our favorite plant and say what it is and why.” Everybody participated. It was a great ice breaker and students knew on day one that their ideas were just as important as the teacher’s. Our visiting hummingbirds also inspire conversations: “Look how many colors!” or, “We have a hummingbird feeder in our backyard.”…“We do too!” The dialogue inspired by natural surroundings really keeps the positive atmosphere going.
SIZE: In an indoor art room jam packed with 20+ kids there’s a real logistical constraint to the size of the artwork we can make. Not any more. We can go big now, really big. And there’s something so powerful for a tiny person to create something so large and substantial. Kylie goes into more depth about the benefits of large scale mark making outdoors on The Creative Toy Shop.
COLLABORATION: Often as part of introducing projects now I’ll incorporate a collaborative prompt for students to engage in together. Because now we have a cement ground. And sidewalk chalk. And space. When creating a collaborative brainstorming piece students get inspired by each others’ ideas. And working together really creates a sense of community.
NATURE INSPIRED WORK: Plants are wonderful for observational drawings and for drawing students’ attention to organic shapes and lines. I’ve been inspired to design projects based on the plants I’m surrounded by and students have added elements of what they see around them into their artwork. There’s such an abundance of inspiration and shapes right at our fingertips now.
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Soooooo…Take your young kids outside to paint and create. There are some great ideas for alternative brushes and surfaces for kids when painting outside in this article by Claire Martin on enabling environments in Teach Early Years. Added benefit to moving artmaking outdoors?….your house won’t get messy. :)