In her experience teaching art studio workshops in New York City, Muriel Silberstein-Storfer has met many children who've heard hurtful remarks about their work. One young student she knows was making a painting of trees, in purple. "How old are you?" the girl's schoolteacher asked, after gazing at the picture.

"I'm seven," said the girl.

"Well, you certainly ought to know by now that trees aren't purple."

"Fortunately," says Storfer, "the girl had been to the museum. She had seen Monet."

It's not just negative criticism that can discourage a child, says Storfer, who wrote Doing Art Together with Mablen Jones.

SOMETIMES PRAISE HURTS

Excessive praise can also be harmful. "It's important not just to say, 'Oh, it's beautiful!' but to talk about what you actually see--the lines and colors and shapes--in the picture," she says.

How can praise be harmful? Well, imagine your boss complimenting you for every little thing you do, even interrupting your work to say positive things about you. At first it would be thrilling, but then, when your least significant effort also elicited praise, you'd begin to doubt her judgment, or feel she wasn't paying attention. You might resent the interruption in a creative process that wasn't yet finished. It could paralyze you from doing more; after all, you might ruin whatever it was she liked.

So it is with young artists. If you want to sustain a young artist's interest, offer praise carefully and spend more time asking questions about what they're doing or making observations.

FOCUS ON YOUR CHILD'S VISION

"Stress their own vision, their own perception of the world, and their own imagination," says Storfer. "One teacher I adore used to say, 'Only a cow can make another cow. You should paint your idea of what a cow looks like.'"

Before saying anything about your child's art, study it. Pay particular attention to its specific elements: its pattern, lines, colors, textures, shapes and shades. You might say, "That pattern reminds me of waves or bubbles," or "How did you make that shade of green?" or "Look how your fingers pushed a tunnel through the clay." When a child realizes what patterns, shapes and colors are, says Storfer, she'll begin to use them on purpose to embellish her work.

Discussing your child's work with her is a useful way to help your child get started, and to keep her going: "When you think of an elephant, what would you draw first?" "What can we make with this clay?" "I wonder what can go up here, in this corner?" or "Where did you come up with the idea for that?" If an artist does something odd--like paint the page black--Storfer suggests offering a nonjudgmental comment such as, "What a dark painting," and you might elicit an explanation. If you can't think of anything to say, you can always mention how glad you are that she's doing artwork. After all, the goal is to be supportive.

CREATIVITY TIP
Give a child a notebook or sketch pad that's for her use alone. She can take it with her in the car, on walks, to school, and fill it with anything she likes. It serves, says Storfer, as a place where no one can ever say "That's not the way it looks."