Introduction
There is no such thing as a dumb question about the elements of art which I teach my K-8 students which are colour, line, shape, form, texture. The scientist Isaac Newton once said:
“To determine…by what modes or actions Light produceth in our minds the Phantasms of Colours is not so easie.”
In his revolutionary work Opticks Isaac Newton demonstrated with his experiments with light that a visible colour spectrum exists and later scientists discovered that it a small part of wide spectrum including electromagnetic radiation beyond human perception without the use of technology.[1] Isaac Newton (1643-1727) helped bring about modern scientific thought with his study of colour and transformed the linear conception of colour created by Aristotle into a disc that we today know as a colour wheel.[2] The purpose of a wheel is to understand colour relationships such as complementary colours which are opposite on the wheel and create the greatest contrast when paired with each other.[3] Indeed, colour perception is not simple! The quantity and arrangement of photoreceptor cells of cones is still being studied to better understand the biology of how humans can see millions of colours.[4] Humans have a visual system that has trichromatic color vision and is color opponent.[5] Color opponency is a way of describing how stimulation or inhibiting of photoreceptor cells in the cones happens.[6] The perception of hues, saturation and brightness of colours depends on our brains making calculations about the ratio of colors in the stimulation of nerves in our visual system.[7]
The focus of this visual arts unit written for instructing first grade students is the biology of the human eye and how humans evolved to perceive colour. It is possible to assume that the colours I see clearly are the same that others experience too, but this is not always the case because of our biology. The last unit I wrote on moss was inspired by my love of the colour green and I became curious about why humans see green better than any other colour. Colour perception is result of how our brain’s visual cortex interprets signals sent from specialized photoreceptor neurons in the retinas of our eyes.[8] The pathway of sight in humans goes from the retina in our eyes to our midbrain and then to our visual cortex and in this process we determine where and what we see.[9] The visual cortex is an amazing biological mechanism in humans that can for example measure depth in space based on elements “relative motion, perspective, shading, occlusion and relative size.”[10]
This unit is a visual arts unit for written for instructing first grade students. The expected duration of the unit is four weeks. This unit can be adapted for students in grades K – 8 in art and biology. 8th grade students for example can practice experimenting with the saturation gradation of colours by adding black or white paint colours.[11] It is a hands-on unit that requires students to record their learning in sketchpads using drawing and writing. Keeping a sketchpad encourages reflection on learning, teaches proper material use and supports literacy.
Figure 1, White Heron, Connecticut, June 2026, Kasalina Maliamu Nabakooza
The bird in the photograph I took above has binocular vision that is better than humans.[12] Some birds furthermore have four types of cones in their eyes.[13] Our understanding of the evolution of human colour vision has been informed by studies of primates which have been divided into Old-World which are most closely related and New World which are more distantly related to humans.[14] An example of an Old-World primate related to humans are chimpanzees.[15] Humans are mammals whose closest relatives are primates with which we share components of elements of our visual system.[16] Mammals specialized to hae a blue-yellow opponent system but primates evolved to also have a red-green opponent system too.[17] Primates are unique among mammals for not just being especially attentive to colour but also for recognizing what things are and where they are in space.[18] Perhaps this is why human toddlers ask questions because they are able to notice things because of their cognitive circuitry. Color blindness occurs with greater frequency in men because it is related to X chromosome genes.[19] The first person to describe colour blindness was a chemist named John Dalton who experienced it himself.[20] There are two types of colour blindness that can occur: one from missing a cone pigment and another type which is called cortical colour-blindness, which results in colours looking grey.[21] In the first type of colour-blindness people can have trouble seeing red/green or yellow/blue.[22] One hypothesis for why humans developed three cones through evolution to distinguish between fruit food sources and for detecting predators.[23] Photo sensitive cells in the rods and cones of our eyes are sensitive to red, green or blue light to varying degrees and send signals through an electrical impulse to the visual cortex of our brains.[24] The neurons of our brain prioritize information and influence our response to the stimulus of our sense of sight.[25]
I am using the scientific discoveries by Isaac Newton as the basis for instructing how to use colour theory and colour mixing in the art classroom. Isaac Newton’s experimentation with colour is the reason we use a colour wheel in the art classroom.[26] During the 1660s Isaac Newton studied colour and did experiments with light using a prism to divide light into the colours of the rainbow.[27] His breakthroughs in optics and to his later breakthroughs in understanding physical laws of the universe.[28] Newton made a hypothesis that because white light could be broken into seven colours with a prism that mixing all the colours would produce the colour white.[29] Colour wavelengths exist on a spectrum and give object colour when they are reflected and not absorbed.[30] When he tested this he found this not to be the case.[31] Students will experiment with prisms to understand the nature of light. Isaac Newton hypothesized that colour was created by vibrations of the eye but we now know that human perception of colour vision exists because nerve cells carry information from our optic nerve to our brain.[32] Our human perception of colour is influenced by our cultural frame of reference.[33]
My students are primarily bilingual or multilingual learners and live in the city of New Haven, Connecticut. My brightly lit art classroom inspired me to think about how colour is created by light. Students will learn about what colour is, how the human eye evolved to see colour, why eyes are different colours and how to use colour in art through drawing, painting, printing and collage. Students will ask questions about why we observe the world and learn about how the evolution of our brains and eyes have shaped our perception of the world around us. For example, students will learn about optical illusions and that humans have visual blind spots.
Rainbows which we can see with the naked eye are a unifying theme throughout this unit. Early experiences in the art classroom using art materials can build the basis from learning from observation. My experiences as a fellow in the Art & Biology and Landscape, Art, and Ecology seminars have sparked my curiosity about how sight works and its impact on how we interact with art materials and artworks. Students will learn to ask questions about and describe how colour impacts how they perceive and what they see in art. Students K-8 have cell phones or familiarity using computers they will learn about colour mixing is possible on screens with natural laws such Maxwell’s colour triangles.[34] Students will see rainbows created by prisms then develop hypotheses about colour mixing and layering with crayon, marker, ink and paints. Students will analyze and reflect on artworks in the Yale Art Gallery by the artists Josef Albers, Sol LeWitt and Kurt Schwitters and develop artworks using colour theory.
Figure 2, Watercolor artwork by a 1st grade student, April 2026
Our brains are primed for curiosity and we feel awe because of our inherent sense of wonder at the world. This spring a first-grade student made the artwork above and wrote in it “You Will Find the Infinite,” during a watercolor lesson inspired by sea turtles. As a viewer I interpreted the student’s writing as being referring to the journey turtles make to the sea upon birth. Hypothesizing how we are influenced by our perception of colour opens up new ways of interpreting the world through art. Newton experienced some of his greatest scientific breakthroughs during a pandemic when he returned home from his studies at Cambridge University. Many of our students have experienced learning during a pandemic too. The ability to imagine possibilities beyond our physical constraints is a skill which can enlarge our worldview and empower students to ask questions. According to Hubble’s Law, the universe is expanding and the farther away galaxies are from us the faster they are moving away too.[35] While reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking I came across Newton’s hypothesis that the infiniteness of space prevents the collapse of our universe from the force of gravity.[36] When Newton was alive he mastered most of the known science of his time.[37] While we have access to massive amounts of data we cannot ever retain all of the information that exists ourselves. However, our innate curiosity about the world is the same as it ever was and can be sparked in the classroom by encouraging students to ask questions. Over one hundred billion stars exist in the universe.[38] Parallel to the vastness and dynamism of space is the miraculous ability of our brains to process what see using an estimated 10¹¹ neurons in our central nervous system.[39] My experiences as a fellow in the Art & Biology and Landscape, Art, and Ecology seminar have sparked my curiosity about how sight works and its impact on how we interact with art materials and artworks. Astronomers mathematically use parallax measurement to calculate where stars are located from our position on earth because distant stars are not located where we visually see them.[40]
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