Taller de pintura y construcciones (Painting & Construction Workshop)

For a long time now, the illustrator-painter-sculptor César Fernández Arias has been regularly teaching art workshops for children. The children call him César instead of teacher, and he does not call his classes art: they are about painting and construction, words that allude to the gesture of touching, the fact of getting your hands dirty, and the need to carry out manual labour. Art will or will not come later, as every artist knows, but the first step is to become familiar with the materials we use to express ourselves.

It is frequently believed that children are innate artists and that anything they create is a work of art. When one expects a masterpiece, this can cause a certain degree of frustration if one fails to accomplish this objective. As a result, children can end up interrupting and abandoning their artistic efforts. César knows it is essential for children to enjoy what they do, and for them to eventually think of it as playing; although for children —which is something grown-ups are not always aware of— playing is a very serious matter.

César currently has his workshop in Madrid, under the name of ‘El Hombre Rayo’ (The Lightning-Man). He once occupied one of the higher floors of the Fine Arts Circle of Madrid, which he transformed into a space dedicated to play and creation: an authentic laboratory of experimentation. This book contains some of the proposals of the workshop, César’s commentary on its inner-workings, and a significant selection of the children’s creations.