By Sheila Ceccarelli

Colour mixing, and understanding the relationships between primary colours, like everything, takes time and experience to master. To develop a deeper fluency and the ability to use colour, children should be given plenty of opportunity, throughout primary school, and beyond, to play with creating colour palettes and developing their skills and instinct for colour.

This resource is based on methods shared, during an AccessArt InSET session, for primary school teachers at New Hall School, Chelmsford, to ultimately enable their pupils to develop colour skills. Teachers explored using their intuition and experience to mix primary colours, creating coloured swatches, that matched the colours of spring flowers, whilst comparing painting mediums.

What is this resource about?

• This resource introduces:

  • Using primary colours in a primary school setting, including:
    • Red, yellow & blue verses,
    • Magenta (primary red), cyan (primary blue) and process yellow (primary yellow)
  • Introducing colour mixing
  • Introducing powder paint
  • The benefits of working with gouache
  • Progressing onto acrylic paint

• Recommended artists to look at to enhance classroom learning

  • Winifred Nicholson, 1893-1981
  • Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775- 1851
  • Helen Frankenthaler, 1928-2011
  • Philip Wilson Steer, Born 1915
  • Bridget Riley, Born 1931
  • Anish Kapoor, Born 1954
  • Merete Rasmussen (Contemporary Young Artist)

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AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.

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This was a very special day for Sheila Ceccarelli from AccessArt, as she got to meet and work with sixty, year five pupils from Berry Hill Primary School in Mansfield Central Library, with colleagues from Inspire Arts Service, who had previously facilitated the development of the AccessArt Village across Nottinghamshire.

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To Connect

At the beginning of the project it was important to take time getting used to each other, the learning space and the surrounding environment. Below is a list of considerations you may find helpful to use in your own learning spaces. Be aware of the daily sounds, smells and other textures of life in your learning space; a constant humming noise or flickering light may be stressful for a child with autism. Allow time for everyone to feel their way in the space; connections may be made through the use of different senses and body parts.

To Conceal

During the six week project, the group explored different themes and actions, some of these were displayed through learning schemas. In week 2 we experimented with different ways to conceal ourselves and objects; schemas such as enveloping and enclosure were exhibited by the group.

To Colour

Two of the sessions explored the theme of colour. The first was rather abstract, I asked questions such as; What does colour smell like? What does colour feel like?
For a child on the autistic spectrum, a question like this may be confusing, some autistic people think and understand literally. So instead of directing these questions at the children, I answered and speculated on them myself. These abstract questions became vehicles for the workshops documented below.

To Construct

In my final post on the project, I want to reflect on the theme of To Construct… looking at the different ways we constructed during the project. Please remember this is a personal and artistic reflection, based on the ideas I presented and the (emotional and physical) reactions and responses of the children and their families, who inspired changes and the development of the project as we experienced it.

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