The Teaching Method of Natalie Robinson Cole
Design and Printmaking
Design seemed to be where Robinson Cole had some definite expectations for her students. She uses simple materials such as crayons and paper plates for children to draw on. She starts again with a cow pattern, since the children have already worked on a cow sculpture. Robinson Cole feels that the "edge pattern" is important and pulls the whole piece together. She has them paint with watercolor and color with crayon in earth tones.
As Robinson Cole feels it is important to follow the lead of the child, they work on another motif that is familiar to them... dancing. She tells the children to make the dancers "big and strong" (p. 48) and instructs them to repeat their pattern if they are including more than one dancer, thereby teaching them about rhythm and pattern. Although Robinson Cole seems to have defined expectations regarding pattern, she wants the content and the figures to be a pure, uninhibited expression of the child.
After the students master painting on paper plates, she moves on to have them create real plates, which is obviously something that would be extremely challenging in today's time constricted art classes. Her students learn the process of platemaking from start to finish, from making molds, mixing the clay, painting their designs and firing them in a kiln.
As Robinson Cole feels it is important to follow the lead of the child, they work on another motif that is familiar to them... dancing. She tells the children to make the dancers "big and strong" (p. 48) and instructs them to repeat their pattern if they are including more than one dancer, thereby teaching them about rhythm and pattern. Although Robinson Cole seems to have defined expectations regarding pattern, she wants the content and the figures to be a pure, uninhibited expression of the child.
After the students master painting on paper plates, she moves on to have them create real plates, which is obviously something that would be extremely challenging in today's time constricted art classes. Her students learn the process of platemaking from start to finish, from making molds, mixing the clay, painting their designs and firing them in a kiln.
Linoleum Prints
Robinson Cole has her students go on to create relief prints on gold colored cloth using carved linoleum blocks. I find it surprising that she has such young students use the tools required for carving linoleum. Robinson Cole lays down important rules including not having a hand in the path of the blade. The process requires several steps, including creating a design on paper, transferring the design on linoleum, retracing the outline in crayon, and then cutting the design. As you can imagine, the children love to see the fruits of their labors once the prints are completed!
