Children’s paintings contain patterns adults can rarely produce

What makes something “art”- the medium, the method, the maker? A new study takes that question out of the philosophy seminar and onto the studio floor, asking whether observers can reliably tell “pour-paintings” made by children apart from those made by adults.

The team focused on the drip-and-splash technique popularized by Jackson Pollock and found that age leaves a detectable signature in the patterns of paint.

“Our study shows that the artistic patterns generated by children are distinguishable from those created by adults when using the pouring technique made famous by Jackson Pollock,” said study senior author Richard Taylor of the University of Oregon.

“Remarkably, our findings suggest that children’s paintings bear a closer resemblance to Pollock paintings than those created by adults.”

How children’s paint patterns form

The researchers leaned on two quantitative tools: fractal analysis and lacunarity. Fractals are repeating patterns across scales – the branching of trees, the curl of coastlines, the billow of clouds. Many artworks, intentionally or not, contain fractal structures.

Fractal analysis measures how paint density “scales” as you zoom in and out. Lacunarity captures the texture of gaps between paint clusters – how uniform or varied those empty spaces are.

Together, these metrics offer a way to read a poured painting’s underlying “grammar” beyond what the eye alone can parse.

How the researchers measured art

To test for age signatures, the team recruited 18 children (ages 4–6) and 34 adults (ages 18–25). Everyone worked Pollock-style: diluted paint splattered onto paper laid on the floor.

Those age brackets weren’t arbitrary. Adults and children differ in biomechanical balance – how steadily and flexibly they control posture and limb motion – and that could influence how paint arcs, drips, and settles.

The project began in 2002, paused, resumed in 2018, and has now been completed. Taylor noted the timing adds a modern health angle.

“We are very happy that after all this time we are finally publishing the results. Luckily, they are even more relevant today than 20 years ago,” he said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic saw an increase in stress levels across society and fractals have been shown to be an effective way of reducing stress through their aesthetic impact.”

Why lighter art soothes

Across hundreds of images, adults tended to lay down denser paint, with broader, more varied trajectories.

Children produced finer-scale patterns with more frequent, noticeable gaps between clusters. Their lines were simpler and more one-dimensional, changing direction less often.

In practical terms: adult pours read as richer tangles; children’s as lighter webs with airier negative space. The authors suggest these contrasts likely reflect differences in balance and motor control, though they didn’t directly track motion here.

Future experiments, they say, should add sensors to capture how bodies move as paint flies – and extend lacunarity analysis to a wider range of artists and styles.

Patterns in historic art

To probe how these structures land with viewers, the team also assessed a subset of adult paintings for perceived complexity, visual interest, and pleasantness.

Works with larger lacunar gaps and less complex fractal structure tended to score as more pleasant.

Children’s paintings showed those same features, suggesting – though not directly tested here – that people might also rate them as more soothing or enjoyable.

“Our previous research indicates that our visual systems have become ‘fluent’ in the visual languages of fractals through millions of years of exposure to them in natural scenery,” said Taylor.

“This ability to process their visual information triggers an aesthetic response. Intriguingly, this means that the children’s poured paintings are more attractive than the adult ones.”

Daily life challenges and art

To anchor their metrics against the canon, the researchers analyzed two expressionist works: Pollock’s Number 14 and Max Ernst’s Young Man Intrigued by the Flight of a Non-Euclidean Fly.

Ernst’s fractal dimensions fell squarely within the children’s distribution, possibly because his pendulum method dampened the natural variability of freehand movement.

Pollock’s values landed within the adult distribution but nudged toward the children’s range, which the authors point out aligns with discussions of his limited biomechanical balance late in his career.

“Art-historical discussions of Pollock’s limited biomechanical balance serve as a reminder that conditions that present challenges in aspects of our daily lives can lead to magnificent achievements in art,” Taylor said.

The bigger artistic meaning

The upshot isn’t merely that statistics can often tell a preschooler’s pour from a college student’s. It’s that the geometry of drips – how dense, how varied, how gappy – tracks the mover behind the movement, and taps into aesthetic preferences shaped by nature’s fractal regularities.

That offers a concrete bridge between motor control, pattern formation, and the viewer’s experience.

It also hints at therapeutic potential. Fractal-rich visuals have been linked to stress reduction. Understanding which pattern features feel most “fluent” to our brains could guide design in clinics, classrooms, and public spaces.

Next frontiers in pattern science

New directions of research will branch out in several ways. The team plans to capture artists’ kinematics in real time. They also aim to map how different pouring tools – brushes, syringes, and pendulums – shape fractal and lacunarity signatures.

Future work will test viewer responses to child-like versus adult-like pour structures across cultures and ages, and it will analyze a broader range of modern and contemporary works.

The broader question – what makes art “art” – won’t be settled by equations. But this study adds a sharp instrument to the toolbox. It shows how the physics of motion imprints on the canvas and how our visual system, honed by a fractal world, responds.

The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Physics.

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