Written by AFA Intern Danaley Silan
April 29, 2022: Kindergarten at PS163 with Teaching Artist Vidho Lorville
Friday April 29th, I shadowed teaching artist Vidho Lorville in classes in which he taught kindergartners how to paint. The class was very technical, and Vidho taught the students several new art terms and techniques. The students started a new landscape painting that they would be working on for multiple classes.
First, Vidho taught the children what the word “landscape” actually means. He encouraged them to use context clues and break the word apart so that they could truly understand the meaning. During this class, the students would be starting and focusing on the background of the painting. Using the same method he did with teaching the word “landscape,” the kids broke apart the word “background” and were then able to identify different backgrounds in pictures and books around the classroom.
Photo by Danaley Silan
The students started with the sky using a mixture of blue paints. Afterwards, they painted land and grass in the foregrounds. To do this, Vidho taught them different techniques that added texture and variety to their paintings. The students had just learned about color theory in their previous art classes, so they mixed different primary colors to produce shades of browns and greens for the foreground.
Vidho knew just the right way to keep the classroom lively and keep students excited while still also having them take the work seriously. This project had very precise steps, but each student was still able to create uniquely individual results. The technical aspects being taught reminded me of the art classes that I would take at a very young age, so it was heartening to see the students having so much fun learning the art form.
