How Does Waldorf Painting Change From Kindergarten to Grade 8?

Waldorf painting starts with color, not pictures. In kindergarten and grade 1, children paint wet-on-wet with one or two colors at a time and no object to copy. In grade 2 they meet opposite colors, and in grade 3 simple forms begin to grow out of the color. Grades 4 and 5 paint animals, plants and landscapes. In grade 6, much of the art turns to light and shadow in charcoal. In grades 7 and 8, children learn veil painting: thin washes of color laid one over another on dry paper.

This is a map of the whole path. For the how-to of each technique, see wet-on-wet watercolor and veil painting.

Why Waldorf painting starts with color

Steiner gave the first Waldorf teachers a short instruction: "You need to allow the forms to grow out of color." That line, quoted by Steve Sagarin in Waldorf Today, explains most of this path.

So a Waldorf child doesn't start by drawing a sun and coloring it in. They start with yellow, and years later a sun might grow out of it. Each grade gives a little more form, a little more control, and a little more waiting. The ideas about how colors feel come from Goethe's writing, which Steiner asked teachers to study. Goethe's theory of color explains that background.

Kindergarten: one or two colors

Kindergarten painting is simple and weekly. Kelly Ehrman of Lavender's Blue Homeschool suggests one painting session a week. She writes that you only need the three primary colors, and to start "with only one or two colors at a time." The point, she says, is "painting colors, not forms."

The grown-up paints too. Ehrman's advice is to "plan to paint alongside your child," because young children learn by imitation. There's no lesson and no story required, though a short verse at the start helps the painting feel like its own time. In many homes it's the Monday activity. Waldorf kindergarten at home shows how painting sits in the week, and the best Waldorf kindergarten curriculum compares programs that include it.

Grade 1: meeting the colors one by one

Grade 1 painting is still wet-on-wet and still without pictures. The Waldorfish team calls it "purely artistic work," with "no expectation of the children creating a specific form or picture of something."

What changes is the order. Many teachers bring the colors in one at a time: "yellow by itself," then blue, then the two together, then red. The Goetheanum's curriculum guidance describes grade 1 as "starting from the polarity of blue and yellow." Each painting often begins with a color story, a few sentences in which the colors act as characters.

Keep it short. Reynolds and Westlake, experienced Steiner class teachers in England, write that in the early classes "the actual painting part will probably not take more than ten minutes." The setting up and clearing away take longer, and that's fine. The grade 1 curriculum guide shows where painting sits in the grade 1 week.

Grade 2: opposite colors

In grade 2, the colors meet their opposites. The Goetheanum's guidance names "complementary colour combinations (red and green, yellow and violet, orange and blue)." Children see how one color can make another look stronger, or quieter, just by sitting next to it.

The Goetheanum's notes tie these color conversations to the legends and fables of the year. A story of two colors as different as can be learning to share a page sits well beside the fables and saints of the grade 2 year.

Grade 3: forms begin to appear

Grade 3 is where you'll first see something you could name. The Goetheanum's guidance has children "producing the primary colours yellow, blue and red from light and darkness," and taking motifs from the creation story, Noah and Moses, and the farmer and blacksmith. Reynolds and Westlake describe grade 3 as the year children begin creating form from color and painting the world around them.

The first day of creation, light coming out of darkness, makes a natural first grade 3 painting. The Old Testament stories and the farming block give you plenty of pictures for the rest of the year.

Grade 4: animals and the Norse myths

The Goetheanum's grade 4 notes speak of "developing animal forms from colours." A child might let warm brown and red gather on the page until a bear stands there. Nobody outlines the bear first. It fits the Human and Animal block well.

The Norse myths give the year its biggest scenes. The Goetheanum's guidance mentions Niflheim, Asgard and Ragnarok as painting themes, and Reynolds and Westlake name the Norse myths as grade 4 inspiration too. Some classes also try painting on colored paper for the first time. See Norse myths in grade 4 and the grade 4 curriculum guide.

Grade 5: plants, landscapes and finer shades

In grade 5, the Goetheanum's guidance has children working with "subtle nuances" of color. They use green, yellow and red "to create moods of the plant world." Landscapes arrive, and so do the ancient cultures of the history main lessons. A painting of a fern in the botany block or a lotus for ancient India both fit.

Some schools begin veil painting here. Emerson Waldorf School in North Carolina lists "veil painting technique" in its grade 5 art. Most children still paint mainly wet-on-wet this year. The grade 5 curriculum guide covers the rest of the year.

Grade 6: light and shadow

Grade 6 turns a corner. The Goetheanum's guidance moves much of the year's art into charcoal or chalk and "the study of projection and shadow." Children look at how light falls on a tree or a stone, and how shadow gives it shape. It sits well beside the first physics main lessons in the grade 6 year, where children study light.

Some teachers bring veil painting in now. Reynolds and Westlake write that "in Class 6 another important painting technique is introduced, known as 'veiling'." Their subjects for the year include Rome, landscapes and geology.

Grades 7 and 8: veil painting

The Goetheanum's guidance introduces veil painting in grade 7 as "a new painting technique" that asks for "considerable restraint," "the ability to wait," and "perseverance." The paper is stretched and dry. Thin washes go on one at a time, and each dries before the next. Grade 7 also brings color perspective, and in some schools Japanese ink painting.

In grade 8, veil painting is "continued and technically rounded off." The same guidance has grade 8 children painting one subject both wet-on-wet and in layers. They also turn black and white pictures, such as a Dürer engraving, into color. Reynolds and Westlake add that teachers in these years often try different media beyond wet-on-wet.

What is veil painting walks through doing it at home.

At a glance

Grade	Technique	What children often paint
Kindergarten	Wet-on-wet	One or two colors, no objects
1	Wet-on-wet	Yellow, blue and red, one at a time, with color stories
2	Wet-on-wet	Opposite colors meeting
3	Wet-on-wet	Colors from light and dark; creation and farming pictures
4	Wet-on-wet, some colored paper	Animals from color; Norse myths
5	Wet-on-wet (veil painting in some schools)	Plants, landscapes, ancient cultures
6	Charcoal and watercolor (veil painting in some schools)	Light and shadow, landscapes
7	Veil painting and wet-on-wet	Color perspective
8	Both, side by side	Nature, color versions of black and white pictures

Schools vary, and so will your family. If your child comes to Waldorf in grade 4 and has never painted wet-on-wet, start with yellow alone, as a grade 1 child would.

A way to begin

Whatever grade your child is in, begin with one painting day a week and one color. This week, wet a sheet of paper, set out a jar of yellow and a wide brush, and paint together for ten minutes. Next week, add blue. Once the painting day feels settled, look at the grade above and take the next step from there.