Art

Isaac has been doing a lot of painting lately. We bought paints and brushes for him about two months ago, right after his enjoyable painting experience at Studio Grow, but he didn't get to use them until last week when I moved his easel outside.

I guess there must be a way to let a toddler paint inside the house, but the idea makes me nervous. Nearly every time he draws at the easel with markers, he concludes his art session by coloring on the floor. It's how he lets me know he's finished. The markers are washable, and our floor is sealed concrete, so it's no big deal. The paints are also washable, but what if he decided to paint on something that can't be washed, like a book? Or the walls (on which the architect insisted we use flat paint, and which therefore don't take well to washing)? I don't want to have to watch him too closely. That doesn't facilitate the artistic process!

When he's a little older I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with indoor art, but right now I'm enjoying kicking back outside in the shade and watching him make a mess I can easily wash away with the garden hose.

Actually, there's little mess, as he's a tidy painter. I put an old t-shirt on him as a smock, but he almost doesn't need it. Maybe he'll loosen up the more he paints, but for now he seems pretty restrained. He frequently steps back, examines the page from a distance, and asks, "How does that look?" Sometimes he even asks, "Is that good enough?" -- which sends a chill through my own perfectionist heart. Talk about hindering the artistic process!

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Although on Friday he was working on a painting for Father's Day, and and it was pretty cute when he stepped back and asked, "Is that good enough for the Father's Holiday?"

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Today he made one of his first unprompted attempts at representational art. In the past he's done things like make circles for wheels when I suggested he paint a tractor, but this time he came up with an idea all on his own. I had just mixed up some pink paint at his request, and he painted a long vertical line with it. "It's a worm," he said. He added a blob at the top of the line and said, "There's the head." Then he added two little lines at the bottom and said, "And there's the feet!"

Yeah, he was making a joke.