Mama/Daughter Art

Typically, I like to start teaching art to kids around the age of seven or eight.  I just find that their attention span is better, their ability to retain data is more accurate and they can recall techniques from week to week.  But my little daughter seems genuinely ready to begin lessons.  We had a long chat last week about warm and cool colors and she asked me why things get smaller when they are farther away. So I'm jumping the gun and beginning instructions.  Our first project was so much fun.  We drove to Jerry's Artarama where she picked out a canvas and a few mediums and colors from the acrylic paint aisle all by herself.  She was much more exited about the oil section but I think we will wait a year or five before that venture. (Yikes.) She had a favorite family in mind for this project so she was especially animated in her abstract application.  She assures me that there are many beautiful things in her piece; fairies, fish and angels, to name a few.  We worked a bit with the knead-able eraser and charcoal on the bag (she even picked out the subject matter for the landscape) and we topped it all off with a little how-to on handmade yarn poms in coordinating tones with her canvas.  As a mother and an artist, it is just so lovely and bonding to have a little companion share your passion.  It's inspired us to create a small art space for her in the art studio upstairs.   xoxo Agnes