Running head: FALL ON THE BEACH

Fall on the Beach

Mikaela Henke
University of Missouri

FALL ON THE BEACH

Art stimulates many different kinds of learning through the manipulation of many
different materials and through the creation of ideas in the mind. The student not only learns
about him/herself, but they learn about others experiences through the careful reflection of their
individual artwork. The purpose of this investigation is to look carefully at a students artwork to
see where that individual is in their art experience level. It is important to know what stage/level
the students are on, so as to not make lessons that are too simple or challenging for them to
accomplish, because prior (art) learning affects growth (Burton, 1980, p. 10). This idea of being
aware of the students abilities is especially pertinent to general education teachers. Teachers
work with many different levels of students in all subject areas, including art, and it is their job
as educators to adjust the curriculum to fit the students varying levels. Emma may be ahead of
her developmental art age stage, but her development in art reflects her development in other
areas of learning.
Method
Emma, the talented first grader at Creek Lane Elementary School, created Fall on the
Beach picture for the study. She was the most creative and artistic in the class, making her the
perfect candidate to participate the study. The researcher asked Emma if she would be able to
draw a picture to help with a class homework assignment. She eagerly accepted, and chose to
draw an outdoor scene.
The researcher simply stood back and let her draw so as not to influence her thoughts and
actions. Emma quietly drew with great focus and devotion to her work. When she was
finished, she proudly displayed the artwork to the researcher. The researcher asked her questions
about her drawing, and Emma was exited to explain her artwork.

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Findings
Emma drew a beach scene.
The blue represents the water, the
light yellow represents the sand,
and the green represents the grass
with small spindly plants. It is
evening time, so the sun is
setting behind the water, with a
lovely red halo to signify a sunset

with darkness creeping in around the sun. This image takes place during the fall, so a big tree
with red leaves falling to the ground is also present. Emma explains that she has been to the
beach and swam in the ocean once, but she saw a shark and it frightened her, and this memory
inspired this picture.
This drawing can be placed in Brittain and Lowenfelds (1980) Schematic Stage, Seven
to Nine Years: The Achievement of a Form Concept, which describes space representation as
having a base line on which objects are placeda sky line with space in-betweenmulti-based
lines, and environment symbolized (p. 476). She is also at the Using Space Around Objects
Stage as described by Cizek (1995). This occurs when the child achieves satisfaction with
symbols, and (creates) borders, base lines, skies and backgrounds to surround the symbols
(Cizek, 1995). In this picture, you can see that Emma had drawn multiple horizon lines, one
being the actual horizon line between the water and the sky, a line between the water and the
sand, and a line between the sand and the grass. She also places the tree on the grass line, and the
sun on the horizon line, showing that she can place objects on top of these lines.

FALL ON THE BEACH

Through art, Emma learns valuable lessons about the materials she uses, learns about
her own experiences through reflection with the researcher, and brings the information learned in
art to other subjects like writing, science, and reading. After looking at previous work samples
from other content areas, Emma has learned to solve difficult math problems out using
pictures, has learned new words in science like vibration and applied them in her artwork, and
has learned to take the fine motor skills from writing and use them do draw more accurate
pictures. Emma not only has understood the idea of cross-curricular information, but also
slowly understands the concept of R directed thinking. Pink (2005) describes that the left
hemisphere specializes in text; (and) the right hemisphere specializes in context (p. 20). This
idea supports the notion that when the researcher asked Emma to create an outdoor scene, she
took it literally, using L directed thinking, but she also used R directed thinking to tell the
researcher why she chose to draw this particular story, and to explain all the symbolism she used
in this story to help the researcher with their homework.
Artists like Henry Matisse would be quite impressed with Emmas work. Since Matisse
was involved in abstract art using paper cutouts, he would describe how he was captivated by the
use the entire space of the paper. He would also remark how she made the sunset realistic
features while giving the horizon an almost abstract look by using loose coloring lines, and
having it creep into the sunset itself.
Conclusion
Even though Emma is only six years old, her drawing reflects that of a drawing from
an eight or nine year old, putting her slightly above her age stage. After looking at work
examples from her other subjects, her writing and reading are on level of her grade, if not above
her age level. She has obviously made connections between her abilities and reflection in art

FALL ON THE BEACH

class to the other subjects. A regular general education teacher can encourage growth by relating
different topics to art since it is important to Emma. This will foster growth between the
subjects and relating it back to something that she is passionate about-art.
Overall, the importance of child art development for general education teachers is
extremely important, especially if the teacher wants the students to take the knowledge that they
learn in one subject, and apply it in another subject. Art is the one place that can really drive
together concepts from all content areas, and make the information create meaning to the student.

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References:

Brittain, W.L., Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental Growth. New York, NY: Macmillan
Co.
Buton, J. M. (1980). Beginnings of artistic languages. Developing Minds, 10.
Malvern, S. (1995). Inventing Child Art: Franz Cizek and Modernism. British Journal of
Aesthetics, 35(3).
Pink, D. (2005). A whole new mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age.
New York: Riverhead Books.