Jaime Bruce: Mix Colours, Feel Good, Repeat

If you don’t know by now, children and colours are like sunshine and the seaside- they can’t be imagined one without the other. I can remember the faces and personalities of some of the only children I’ver met who didn’t enjoy colour mixing. They were those children who would watch on act a safe distance; making connections, eyeing mixing techniques suspiciously, and delighting in the joy of others as they played. Perhaps not in Nursery, but certainly by Reception, these children would have joined in, whether it be for only a minute, or many many days of carefully considered work.

Unaided and unprompted, children see blobs of primary colours as invitation enough to mix. We have all placed, at some point in our teaching life, paints in beautiful pre-mixed palettes, awaiting children to paint a Picasso-esque masterpiece, only to find them making brown for the millionth time with a brush stirring in either hand. Whilst this genius of fine-motor control should be applauded, it can be disappointing as an adult, with pre-existing aesthetic ideals, when this happens. BUT, in keeping with child-centred practise, perhaps it is then when we should remove all other stimulus, and allow the mixing itself to become the reason for the paints. After all, mixing colour is more than just that, it can be a vibrant expression of self, and a reason to let go, get messy, and discover limits.

Why does colour mixing provide such rich experience? Personally, I see a lot of new behaviours when I watch children mix paints. I see careful consideration of what colours to combine, which order to incorporate them, and in what quantities. I see changes in process and method which are informed by trial and error from previous mixing. Children learn that to change the outcome, they have to change the input, which in itself has links with mathematical ideas, or science. A lot of children start mixing and see it as a kind of magic, that many things might come together to be completely different to the original parts. Conversely, some children don’t know when to stop, and you might see them frustrated with a constant revelation of brown after brown after brown. That is ok too, and provides you with the chance to suggest trying only two colours, or perhaps even physically removing the other colours to give a child clarity. Colour mixing seems to give children a joy that is obvious in their talk. They learn to encourage, suggest, and to explain their own findings to others. They show delight when they create a colour they love. They find they can be in control of this little experiment which gives back the more they put in.

I used to really control the easels at school, ha! I liked clean colours because I thought it meant more children got to enjoy clean colours. But really, I sort of think that if the colours get mixed, I can just change them, refresh them, be less idealistic. I still get kids reporting diligently that “so-and-so is mixing the colours up, Jaime!” and now I just say that its fine; its actually great! Me and my colleagues are always discussing how we can have better access to paints, without them being “for grown-ups to ration”…..something to keep thinking about…