4. Week One: The Studio as a Place of Possibility

When they entered the classroom, the students found large white squares of stretch paper clipped to 4-foot square Masonite boards propped up against two large butcher-block tables set end to end. New canvas drop cloths lined the floor and a selection of paints, brushes, and other supplies were placed on a third table.

Since each member of the club had experienced my classroom environment for the past two years, they were aware that student autonomy and self-governance were fundamental aspects of my teaching style. I expect this is why there was little tentativeness on the students’ part. They immediately chose a space to work, grabbed supplies and began painting. Within seconds the white surfaces were covered with large burgundy orbs,

primary splats

and bright yellow handprints.

The only advice I offered was that they consider using the house paint as a base when mixing colors since the “student grade” tempera paint tended to crack after drying when applied too thickly.

I found it interesting that each of the students produced non-representational works. The abstraction seemed to be borne out of physical interactions with the paint.One student chose to don a pair of the vinyl gloves, dip her hands in a shallow puddle of paint and spread it over the paper’s surface in thick viscous glops. Dissatisfied with this effect she used a putty knife in an attempt to scrape off the paint. Unsuccessful, she then mixed a large batch of carnation pink and plastered the surface of her painting using the paper plate as a trowel.

Another student used gloved hands to spread wide swaths of lavender across the surface. She added a layer of green arabesque tendrils by flicking a putty knife loaded with green paint. She then smeared the paint with the flat end of the blade creating an impressionistic effect as the lavender color field shimmered from beneath broad strokes of Kelly green.

Two other students snapped and jerked their brushes in quick succession causing riotous multicolored skeins of paint to build upon the surface of their paper in webbed layers.

This first meeting of Big Paintings Club set the stage, creating a baseline of painterly possibilities. The students were in control of the process. The materials were not set out on the table as part of a prescriptive recipe to follow but as potential tools of creative engagement.