What is needed for young children to express their creative ideas through art? Linda Keats explains.

One of the first things that I think of as being essential for a paint area is natural light. Fluorescent light only smothers colours, while daylight shows them at their brightest and best.

There has to be a balance, though. A window looking on to a busy road will only distract, just as brilliant light streaming into the room will dazzle. What will inspire is lots of daylight and a view of nature and sky.

Other priorities for planning and resourcing this area become apparent when practitioners consider its true purpose, when they see it not simply as a 'messy' area but as a truly creative one, in which older children within the EYFS can explore and express their emotions and experiences.

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