Abstract:

Creativity is a process of creating new and original ideas, concepts, and solutions. A child is a creative individual who represents her/his creative potential through her/his artistic solutions. In this process, the teacher plays a key role. The teacher should not interfere with children's creativity but constantly find new ways to encourage children's artistic creativity.

In this study, the main objective was to examine teachers' experiences related to the use of different teaching approaches aiming to encourage creativity in teaching Art. This qualitative research was carried out in cooperation with three primary school teachers. Using three parallel case studies, the researchers examine how painting and graphic techniques affect the creative artistic process and possibly stimulate children's artistic creativity.

Following the research aim, the three primary school teachers' Art classrooms were selected as a source of data. The data were collected employing a semi-structured interview with the three primary school teachers and structured observation of lessons based on pre-defined categories.

The research results show that before letting students create, teachers use artworks by highly acclaimed painters, along with different activities and various creative games to encourage children's artistic creativity. These actions arouse students' imagination and freedom of original expression.

In graphic techniques, the most common is the new use of art content (change of color, surface, size, rhythm) and the ability to detect artistic problems. In painting techniques, the most common is the new use of art content (change of color, surface, size, rhythm), elaboration of the original idea in detail (analytical drawing), and the adoption of artistic and compositional elements. Moreover, painting techniques allow more creativity, while graphic techniques give more diverse results than painting techniques.

In the conclusions, the researchers discuss study findings and provide directions for future research.

Keywords:

Creativity, graphic techniques, painting techniques, teaching Art, case studies.