Visiting Elena Orlova, Director of the Regional Children’s Art Gallery
Yulia GRECHUKHINA
Much begins in the depths of childhood — so early that an adult cannot always remember it later. They say that an unborn child beneath the mother’s heart is already able to perceive and remember music. And the first attempts at painting are within the power of a one-year-old.
I ask Elena Vladimirovna Orlova, Director of the Regional Children’s Art Gallery:
— Should every child draw?
— Every person should draw, she gently corrects me.
...Once a little five-year-old girl brought a checked sheet of paper to a city competition for young artists. The naive picture in red and blue pencil was called “Sea Battle.”
The drawing won! And it became the beginning of a beloved profession, a career, a fate — everything. Today Elena Orlova, a well-known graphic artist, gallery director and professor at the Volgograd Institute of Arts — and that already means a school, students and pupils — still works with children, with fledglings not yet hatched:
— In the studio of the Regional Children’s Art Gallery, Volgograd mothers bring very small children to study. Do you accept children by competition?
— Our gallery will soon be 20 years old. It was the first in Russia. No beginning is without trial and error. During the period of formation, popularity and excitement, we had to hold competitive selections. In the end we came to the conclusion that we must not do that. Selection is appropriate for an applicant to a professional university. But at the dawn of life we must give everyone equal opportunities. Of course, it is easiest to work with children whom an angel has kissed on the forehead, as if they were born with a brush and pencil in hand. But if you have chosen the profession of teacher, you must count on all kinds of children. A doctor does not say: you are seriously ill, so I will not treat you. It is the same here. We work with everyone.
— Is there enough room for everyone?
— We have expanded the number of studios. We were among the first in Volgograd to open a club for early intellectual development. We were the first to begin working with very young children. Now many similar organisations have appeared in the city, working according to different methods of early development but with common goals. This is the most important thing the gallery has achieved — the positive side of competition.
— Please tell us, at what age can a child be brought to an art studio?
— Well, at three. Sometimes earlier.
— Seriously?
— I remember lying in hospital with my elder son when he was six months old. He would not sleep; I carried him in my arms and told him fairy tales. The doctor said to me: “Are you crazy, reading Pushkin — the child understands nothing.” Now it has been proven that children hear fairy tales and music even in the womb. The earlier any influence begins, the more successful the result.
— Should a one-year-old toddler be given paints and brushes?
— For now he can draw with a finger dipped in paint. All pointed objects — brushes, pencils — are potentially traumatic for a small child. Constant supervision is needed if a mother does give him such tools. Why not? My sons had access to pencils and paper very early. I believe that, if possible and if housing conditions allow, materials for visual creativity should be placed within reach. To awaken interest. It is the same as with toys. A child takes a little car, studies it, starts rolling it, humming. It is the same here. And, of course, the materials should be at a height accessible to the child. That drawing of mine on a checked sheet was daubed on the floor.
— And paints?
— Above all, good quality ones. There is no problem with that now. Bright gouache. Acrylic paints. Wax or oil crayons — pastel. There are very good professional pencils. No comparison with the “firewood” of our childhood. Quality is all the more important the younger the child is. A student can still understand that he would have done better, but the material did not allow it. Little children cannot be objective. They see that the color is ugly, whitish — and that is all.
— Do you agree with the common opinion among psychologists that if a child most often uses black and brown, a monochrome range, it means the child has psychological problems?
— I do not agree. I have observed opposite examples. A child is cheerful, adequate, receptive, sociable — and still takes black. It is simply a very expressive color! I am a graphic artist; I love black and white. No paint lies as lightly as black.
— Speaking of psychology: art training and art therapy are fashionable now. Do you use such methods?
— They really are extremely interesting, and we intend to try them in the gallery. Not only for older children, but also for parents.
— How many studios are there in the gallery?
— Let us list them: the studios led by Alla Skorova, Vera Samokhina, Larisa Samarina and Tatyana Koveshnikova; the club of early intellectual and aesthetic development, led by Larisa Smirnova with friends and colleagues; and Natalya Popova works with our very youngest children, under three.
— Should one show a small child how to draw a flower, a house, a little person?
— When a professional shows it, there is probably nothing bad in that. There is nothing shameful if a parent, not feeling any talent, says: I cannot draw a person either; let us try together. Perhaps we will manage. Parental authority is not diminished when a parent tries to master something in front of a child; on the contrary, it has a positive effect on friendly relations. We used to have a group for parents and children. At first the mothers strongly criticised their children: “What have you drawn! Trees like that do not exist! Where have you seen eyelashes like that?” But when they sat down next to them... sometimes those little ones helped their mothers: “Mom, not like that. Don’t be afraid.” Sometimes it seems to us that we know everything: how to teach, how to heal, how to govern the state, how to draw.
— And the child?..
— He is more liberated.
— Let us return to the beginning of our conversation. Why do children need to draw?
— The main thing is that they should be happy. We are talking about drawing not as a future profession, but as a means of self-expression. Professional training is something different. There is very strict self-discipline there, as in sport or music, where there is no escaping exercises, scales, perspective construction. We are talking about drawing as a way of expressing emotions and cultivating aesthetic taste — something that will be useful in choosing clothes, creating a cosy home, setting a table. We are talking about forming needs, so that a person needs to go to an exhibition and look at paintings. Education — that is what the gallery does. That is what our conversation has been about.
Volgogradskaya Pravda, September 25, 2009
