Painting with kids

Posted in: Art, Parenting | 3

After a hiatus spent living, I decided to just create something experimental today. I don’t tend to be able to keep my paintings simple, although I would like to. That is what I was working toward with this one.

I finally had a fairly relaxing weekend simply taking the kids for a walk, playing in the yard, etc. At a park, I saw a white wooden peg laying on the ground and I thought it would look interesting to just paint a bunch of white pegs. That is how this started. But then it started to look like a city with a circle around it.

This is not a good picture but you can see I change it a lot and through in some warm-toned pigments and scraps of paper. The goal was to just play and also mess up the haloed-city look.

I tend to get distracted every time I make art by these interesting old scraps. I guess it is meditative for me and part of the process.

The whole family has been very creative – my husband is back into playing guitar, and my daughter does not stop drawing. My son doesn’t draw as much but when he does, it is always interesting and abstract. Here is how they kept busy while I was trying to paint. It is not always easy…when the mood strikes, I must paint, and when I glance up, one child is ready to dip one of my fine watercolour brushes into the pail of gesso, the other one is opening the lids of various paints all over the floor.

Sometimes I wish I could do more art, and other times I am happy just living creatively. We poured a lot of creative energy this week into picking out an incredibly beautiful Persian carpet, playing “fetch” with our new kitty, cooking, visiting family and friends and just living it! Hope you are all having a good beginning to the summer.

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