Saturday, August 13, 2011

Le artiste

Last week we dabbled in watercolor. I'm so glad we did - Ellie's attention span for the project surprised me. She loved everything about it, and was surprisingly intense and focused on her painting... complete with furrowed brow and brief glances upwards at me with only her eyes, head unmoving, when I would ask her what she was painting. It's always fun to watch a different side of your child emerge unexpectedly with a new activity.

Getting started, with a little bit of assistance from 'mama' (as she calls me)


I can hardly stand that head-in-hand posture as she swirls her colors around the paper!



Testing out different paint surfaces (as mommy cringed but let the entire creative process unfold! ha)


I have decided that after she tested out every color in the pallet, she jumped right into her 2 year old 'dark period'. All she wanted to paint with was BLACK BLACK BLACK. We had a lot of dialogue back and forth about 'darkness' and 'nighttime' and 'black like the night' and 'ooooh, scareeeeeeee!'. Yes, she frightened herself with the amount of black paint she applied to her paper. That might be a first among young artists.


There's that intensity I was talking about


Which brings us to today - Saturday. I thought it would be fun to break out the paints again since Robbie had been napping during Ellie's earlier painting experience and missed out.

I set up the paints and paper, and was trying to give Maddie a bottle and get her settled for her nap simultaneously. Not happening. After laying down 2 fresh sheets of paper in front of the older 2, I quickly took Maddie up to her room to finish what was left of her bottle, change her diaper, and lay her in her crib.

Just minutes later, I returned to this scene.

Robbie's place at the table... he is conspicuously absent, a mess waiting for me in his place.


Little lady was not happy to be painting alone, and had resorted to taking her angst out on her paints and dipping bowl with her bare hands.

And as I searched for Robbie, I found him hiding in the living room. See the next post if you're curious about what he was up to. And then laugh as you try to imagine how I attempted to clean all of this up at the same time because where. do. you. even. start. ????

Watercolors. Not for the faint of heart. (Or is that just motherhood?)

2 comments:

The Larsons said...

Do you remember Charlott'e "dark period?!" I just smiled when I read this post!

Love those little ladies! xo

Dave, Ninny and Isla said...

I feel your pain! Isla chucked a whole plate of pasta when she threw a fit last week. Then she walked in it and all over. Your Ellie is so beautiful. Funny that Isla is just getting into painting now too. If I ever designed my own house, I think I'd have a kid room made of material that I could hose down every night. Your doing a great job mama.