showcase

I think I might depend too much on the art my children create to decorate our home, but, well, who wouldn't.  Ava is a person who must always be making something and her art is truly worthy of praise and she gets it wholeheartedly from us (though she is suspicious of parental prejudices), both verbally, and physically.  True, we haven't a budget for art, but I love having her work up.   Now, Harry isn't so taken by the pen/crayon/pencil, but hand him a paintbrush and like any nursery schooler, happy big strokes and swirls abound.  Having a tendency toward mud making, I have a trick that ensures a beautiful product when I feel like I'd like to have some big color on our walls (legal color, that is).

Give your young artist a good quality piece of paper and a choice of colors that all go together- all blues and greens, or all reds and oranges... Tell them too fill up all the white space with color.  Sometimes I use painter's tape (it comes off easily) to make a border and when it is peeled off, the painted space really pops out.  When the paint is dry, hand them a paint pen and let them draw whatever they want.  This is one that Harry did when he was almost 4.  

Framed, it looks like this (minus the weird distortion)

Once, I gave him a canvas and he made something similar for a gift for Nana.  

Ava made the following triptych for Jonathan for his birthday this year.  She is really into drawing these simple people with black line, so this project also worked well for her.  A solid acrylic color on 3 blank canvases, then a paint pen for the people.  Sweet.