An Artist in the Family

I was very proud when two of my academically gifted children opted to do an Art GCSE after school. Neither of them had any real artistic talent but slogged their way through the course to each achieve C grades. I think the life lesson they learned persevering with something that did not come easy was extremely valuable.

I have always enjoyed art. I loved watching "Paint Along with Nancy" in the seventies with the slightly mad Nancy Kominsky who showed us that anyone can create a masterpiece. I would have liked to do an Art qualification but I hated the Art teacher at my school which put me right off. I did a one off class in still life pencil drawing as an adult but there is only a limited amount that anybody can learn in one session. I love to draw and paint within my limitations and have a whole cupboard in my garage dedicated to art and craft materials.

I makes me so happy to see my three year old experimenting with paints, chalks, felt tips, pencils and crayons. She is starting to produce some really characterful pictures.

Unfortunately, her experimentation sometimes goes down a route that is not entirely acceptable. This is what happened in the few moments when I left her and her brother playing as I put a load of washing in the machine. She decided to colour him in.

Apologies for the standard of the photography - obviously my main concern was to clean him up and comfort him after his short but intense ordeal. I did think it worth taking the second to quickly capture the moment though!

His disgruntled little brown face was soon clean and smiling again after an emergency bath and the felt tip pens are no longer as easily accessible for the three year old.