Day 22: Watercolor Painting with Kids

After I cleaned the kids' paint up and put them down for a nap,
I painted for the first time in six years.  That's right.  Six years.
It's not my best work, but I enjoyed it so much!
 Why did I go six years without it?!?

I love to paint.  I love to draw.  I love creating with my fingertips.

With that said, I haven't painted a picture since I had children.  They, by no means were the reason for that.  I just used it as an excuse.  In my lack of using my own art skills, I fear I may have not shared the very thing I have loved so dearly since before I can remember:  Art.

Through Pinterest, I discovered a wonderful blog called The Artful Parent.  I think I may find that is a great resource for me as I try to rediscover what I love about art and show my kids that they can love art too.  Of course, I'm not going to force it on them, but at the ages that they are now, they all love to grab a paintbrush and have at it!

In the process of painting watercolor painting with all three of my kids, I learned a few things.

1)  DO prepare.  DON'T tell your kids what you are preparing for, otherwise, they will "help" with the preparations a little too much.
2)  DO have the right supplies.  I got out my six-year-old tubes of water color and couldn't open half of them.  The other half were dried up.  I had to scramble for more paints.
3)  DON'T paint with all three of your kids, ages 20 months, 3 years, and 5 years, without taking a chill pill before hand.  Prepare your mind for stress.  (i.e. spilled water, paint on table, hands, clothes, floor.  Kids falling out of chairs trying to reach for paint.  Kids crying because the paint won't come off their hands.)
4)  DON'T expect to paint with them.  I did.  How silly of me!  I realized how private and relaxing painting is meant to be for me.  It doesn't mix with kids.  Period.
5)  DON'T worry about it if you don't really care to paint or for the Arts.  DO have your kids paint anyway.  It's good for them to be able to create anything their little minds think up.
6) DO, if you fancy it, paint a picture of your own after you clean up and put your kids down for a nap.  You will need it.

Upon finding The Artful Parent blog, I decided to do one art lesson a week, if possible.  Next week we will try watercolor with crayon resist!  I'm excited!

Left:  Paintings by Jackson.  Top Right:  Owen's painting.  Bottom Right:  Madelyn's painting.

Day 5: Morning Sky

I by no means got up early enough to get a photo of the morning sky! So, this is a photo of a painting I did for Troy when we were dating. I haven't painted for a while and I would really love to have time to get back into it!

I hope!

Troy and I are both of the "right-brained" creative type. We love the arts and would love our kids to love it. We, of course, won't force it one them, but we are sharing our appreciation of the creative with them. This past week, Jackson was in the living room drawing on his notepad (that he asked for because he wanted to be like Steve in Blue's Clues), and he called out to us, "I drew a triangle! Come and see!" Sure enough, he drew a REALLY good triangle (pictured above), and a right triangle at that! Do 2-year-olds draw triangles normally? Perhaps he will be an artist like his mommy! :)