Toby & the Parrots

I haven't forgotten about Jaran and his amazing art but because he used oil pastels for his little dog Toby and H2o color applique for the parrots, I didn't think to post them with my other grand kid's tempera washes. Sorry Jaran! He did these two super pictures when he was only 6 and 7 years old, Toby in oil pastel being the first. During these art lessons with me, he too learned the first rule of good design: how to "divvy" up the paper into positive and negative shapes, and then a little about the use of color. His family, along with everyone else, loves these paintings and have framed and hung them in the dining room.

Grazing #1 & Grazing #2

Emma, my 8 yr. old granddaughter really had fun painting these two delightful pictures during her birthday art lesson with me. She learned how to use positive and negative shapes, in this case horse cutouts she first drew herself and then arranged and rearranged on another piece of paper until she was satisfied with her design. After tracing them, she painted the first one using variations of the primaries red, yellow and blue. We enjoyed the painting so much, we had her paint another one using the same horse cutouts but arranged differently and painted in a complimentary color scheme. I love children's art and am impressed with Emma's fresh and sensitive view of the world.

Kate's Paints

Talking about kids...how about my grand daughter, Kate's, washed tempra inspired from a trip to the zoo. Beautiful! She was 7 when she did this. I believe ALL kids, even when they are quite young, can draw well, learn good design skills and execute a very credible and beautiful piece of art work worthy to be moved off the fridge on to a major wall.