Early Exposure to Art Develops Creativity

Kish Cottage

11x14

oil on canvas

It bothers me to think about the cuts in arts and music that our public schools are being forced to make in order to meet their budgets. I think of all the little artists who won't get the opportunity to learn about creativity and freedom of expression. I can't help but think it will affect the next generation in a negative way. Study after study has proven that early exposure to the fine arts boosts a child's creativity and imagination.

According to John Ninnemann, principal of the Keys School, "young children are naturally expressive.
They have a strong sense of composition and come to school with the innate urge and ability to create and perform. It’s little wonder then that fine arts education delights our students. But an education in the arts does far more than that. Most researchers now consider arts “The Fourth R,” an intellectual discipline as essential as reading, writing and arithmetic, integrally linked to basic learning and key to children’s social and emotional development.

An obvious source of joy and wonder for children, the arts are vital in their own right. Music, drama, visual arts, dance – each offers children another way to communicate and comprehend the world around them. Arts inspire imagination and creativity, promote individuality and self-expression, and teach tolerance
and open-mindedness. Research backs up what teachers know intuitively and witness every day in their classrooms – involvement in the arts clearly boosts students’ self-confidence and self-esteem."

While my daughter and I spent a rainy weekend at Lakeside, Ohio in early July, I sat on the porch and painted some local scenery. A few people were curious and stopped over to take a peek at what I was painting. One couple asked me to paint their son's cottage so they could give the piece to him for Christmas. I have discovered that most people who buy paintings for personal reasons learned the value of art at an early age. These are different than investors, who buy art because they think it will be worth more down the road.

Sue Kish told me about her father, who was a plein air painter in the fifties and sixties. He took all of his children outside and tried to teach them to paint the landscape from life. Sue said she never really became good at it but she did develop an appreciation for art. She wanted me to paint the house en plain air after the her son's family left for the weekend. When I told her this would depend on the weather she understood. There was a small window of sun that weekend so I ended up riding my bike over to the cottage, making a small sketch of the house and taking a few photographs. Then it rained again. The painting was completed at home and mailed to the client.