Former secondary school art teacher Reanda Gerber will be teaching an Acrylic Painting Workshop for Kids at the Riversdale Arts Centre on Saturday.
She has trialled this workshop at Waikaia School and said it was amazing how accessible it was to all abilities and ages.
The children use sponges, spray bottles, dabbing and ‘squeegee’ techniques to layer paint to make their own unique galaxy.
"We’ll do some separate techniques and then let them choose what they want," she said.
"That also brings individuality and creativity in."
Mrs Gerber was a secondary school art teacher, but has been taking some time off to teach her children, aged 1 and 3.
She said teaching primary-aged children how to paint was interesting and had taught her lessons as well.
With younger children, you really want to break down the skills and techniques so they understand it while choosing a subject matter that keeps their interest, she said.
She said it was humbling to return to teaching art, as the juniors were small but achieved so much, were more fearless and just focused on having fun.
"They think anything they do is amazing and that kind of humbles me and go like, yeah, it is amazing," she said.
With older children, the inner critic starts to emerge and Mrs Gerber has to remind her students to trust the process.
"Often in art, you find a place where you don’t like it, but it’s how do we overcome that and how do we kind of keep going?" she said.
It was nice to go through that process with students and see them take home something they were proud of, she said.
It was important to listen to children as well, when, as a teacher, you may have a fixed idea of what a painting should look like.
"The kids have their vision and sometimes it’s important to let your vision go," she said.
"Then enjoy what they’ve created."
She was not sure how fitting one art class into 1pm-4pm slot was going to go, but she had prepared hair dryers for faster drying time.
"That’s what art teachers do ... we problem solve as we go."
A small business teaching children different painting techniques is in the pipeline, she said.
The class is $60 per person for children aged 5 to 12, go to Riversdale Arts social media for more info
