Friday, December 29, 2006

The Artist


Fiona loves painting. She's had exposure to tempera and acrylic paints, but what she loves are watercolours. She loves the intricacies of bleeding colours, washes, dry brush, dry and wet paint, blends and colour combinations. She plays around with these techniques endlessly, not aware of them as techniques per se, just experimenting and experiencing the different ways the paint responds and marries itself to the paper.

Erin went through a watercolour phase a year or so ago, and Fiona insisted on her own set of paints like Erin's. I found her one of the inexpensive Yarka sets that she really liked. They're a little gelatinous, but rich in pigment and they served her well. She wore them out, though, at a rate of about a set a month. Let's not even talk about paper. While I'd sometimes buy her the nice blocks for a treat, I settled on department store 9x12" sheets cut into quarters a lot of the time.

FeathersDry Wiggles
I thought I might buy her a block of good paper and another set of Yarkas for Christmas, but when I went to the local store, they had a sale on a Cotman portfolio & paint set ... 10 tubes of Cotman colours, two fine brushes, a palette, a small pad of good paper and a 12x18" zip-up portfolio. The whole thing was a great deal, around $40 Cdn, what I would pay for three or four monthly Yarka sets and a block of paper. So I bought it. Yup, for a 3-year-old.

Wet vs. Dry StudyColour Bleeding Study
She is thrilled. She has almost finished the new pad of paper, though the paints will last ages. She has been creating paintings for people, and when we've mailed them out as gifts, we've enclosed a recent photo, "a photo of the artist." So Fiona has taken to calling herself "the artist."

Desert Landscape
Whale Surfacing
I love watching her paint. She is variously intent, gentle, observant, contemplative, quizzical, bold -- and always fully engaged. Creativity at its finest.

4 comments:

  1. Wow! I am really impressed by Fiona's artistic talent! I especially love the picture of the whale. If my ds were that interested in art, I would get him a great set of paints, too! LOL
    Right now, he is really into jig-saw puzzles and I spent an indecent amount on those for Hannukah.
    Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:26 am

    I love Fiona's paintings... but mostly I love the look of intent she has in the picture.... she is so focused ont eh colores and the paper... Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, that is one amazing little girl you have there. I, too, love the whale, and the "landscape" above it. Is there no end to her gifts? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love those paintings, too! I love how you get her good quality paints and paper to use...

    ReplyDelete

This blog is moving to archive-only status. Please consider posting comments instead at the active version of the blog at nurturedbylove.ca/blog

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.