My artist granddaughters, Izzy age 8 and Hattie age 5. I arrived for the long weekend in Cornwall with two sheets of sturdy paper which had been rollered with gesso. 2-3 layers on the front and 2 on the back is ideal. Izzy helped gesso them and this gave her some enthusiasm for the idea of painting the cottage before we left. The sheets are masking-taped to boards and acrylics are at hand.First we talked about all the details, counted the windows, kept running up to look behind … [Read more...]

 Good morning! I found this blog which was most interesting and even hilarious. The arist, Mica Angela Hendriks draws a portrait of someone rather formally and cardefully shaded, then her four year old adds the body. http://busymockingbird.com/2013/08/27/collaborating-with-a-4-year-old/. Have a look at the link for many wonderful and often hilarious results. … [Read more...]

Izzy and I played "Let's pretend we are artists". You might know that I'm fascinated by child art and how it is taught. Izzy has an outstanding teacher (more about Fee in a future blog) and she really loves art, so I suggested that I pose for her with Islay the Westie on my lap. I gave her quite a large felt-tip so that her drawing would be bold and she couldn't erase.  She started with Islay. Izzy is crazy about dogs so this was a logical starting point. I was aware that she kept looking at … [Read more...]

The way that children are taught art can be so exciting.I have two little artist granddaughters - Elva who is 6 is Swedish and lives in Singapore and Izzy who is 7 lives a few miles away. I'll show you Izzy's art later but today I'll give you a taste of how Elva is learning to love art and really connect with it.  Elva used oil pastel on a small canvas about A4 size. After looking at Klee's work, they spoke about different aspects of castles and what elements could be included, using key words … [Read more...]