History and Method

By Valeen Parubchenko, Founder of Private Picassos

According to published research, art can increase fine motor skills, reading and writing ability, and verbal and visual vocabulary.  But there are also benefits outside the edges of your child’s paper that can help measure the importance of their experience.

Art not only increases their skill level and artistic ability, but also their confidence as artists and human beings.  Children who are exposed to the arts at a young age are more likely to try new things, go outside the lines when problem solving, and eloquently express themselves visually and verbally, according to Elliot Eisner in his book Ten Lessons the Arts Teach.

At the core of all of our programs is an emphasis and exploration of the fine arts.  Using fine art materials and methods, as well as examples of fine artists’ work as inspiration, we are able to offer motivation for our students’ artwork without directly influencing their final product.

Whether your child is experiencing art one-on-one with an instructor in their home or in a small, public group art class, they are encouraged to engage in creative collaborations with new people and express themselves to a broad range of listeners.  The social interactions and highly personal expressions that coincide with creating artwork with and then explaining that artwork to someone else are also fundamental lessons that children learn through out their formative years.

A cornerstone in our curriculums is attention to the artistic level of each of our students. Although each student works at their own pace, most children develop artistically in the following manner (as noted by Viktor Lowenfeld in his book Creative and Mental Growth).  We keep the following stages in mind when developing our curriculums:

• 2-4 years old: children respond to the world around them by scribbling with different drawing materials, working on their fine motor skills
• 4 - 7 years old: children respond to the world around them by drawing shapes and stick figures, using some recognizable imagery, as well as exaggerated imagery to express interest in their subject
• 7 - 9 years old: schematic, recognizable imagery appears, as well as a base line to show the horizon and a double baseline to show distance
• 9 - 12 years old: fold over spatial representation appears, as well as overlapping to show distance, interest in realism
• 12 -13 years old: interest in the conceptual aspects of art and expressing oneself

With each of our lessons specifically designed to introduce or develop a new skill, method or theme, children thus progress naturally onto the next phase once they have mastered those that came before. 

Another factor in encouraging this progression is small class size.  All of our programs have a maximum of 10 students, with most programs for children under the age of 4 working with two instructors per class.  Keeping a small class size allows one on one instruction with the teacher for each student, as well as more social interactions and relationships between our students.

I started Private Picassos because I was frustrated with the lack of focus and attention in the arts at many public and private institutions. Also, the overwhelming obsession at these institutions with “adult influenced” artwork, where no expression or creativity of the child was reflected, was also a source of disappointment.  This led me to create a unique program that focuses on each student’s skill level, interests, goals, and artistic mind.

Private Picassos believes that everyone is an artist and can create beautiful, interesting artwork when given the correct tools.  We constantly remind even our youngest students that even though they want to become an artist when they grow up, they are already artists, as is evident in their distinctive artwork.