Not your average day

One of the first art projects Benjamin brought home from school was a comparison of day and night. Here is how he described his pictures:

DAY
That is the sun and the tree is an apple tree. There's a fort in the tree next to the house.

NIGHT
The scribbles up top represent fireworks. The white scribbles on the right are zombies. There are also black widows and lots of zombies in the house - you can see the explosions from them.

I have few words for this night time scene, except that he has never seen a zombie show at our house. Zombies are the Pre-K/K set's fascination, from what I can tell. Must be the talk of the playground.

In other news, he has art class every Friday and they always do really interesting stuff. I am so grateful that he is in a school that values art and music. They only get those classes once a week, but still...I think the quality of the education is quite high.

The Red Animal

LP: Mama, come and see what I painted. It's a red animal.

Mama: Ooh, cool. Tell me about it.

LP: Well, guess what it is.

Mama: Um...a dinosaur?

LP: No. It's something else. Not something a long time ago.

Mama:  OK. An anteater?

LP:  No. Because it doesn't have a long snout. That is its mouth (pointing at the indentation on the right). THAT is the tail (pointing at the part I thought was a long snout).

Mama: OK. Hmmm...I don't know.

LP: It's the biggest of all the land mammals.

Mama: I want to say elephant, but I can see that it doesn't have a trunk. What is it?

LP: [big sigh]

Pause. He looks around the room and dramatically rests his chin in his hand, elbow on the counter.

LP: [another big sigh] You see, it's a...gleason (pronounced glee-sahn). You just haven't seen one before. When I was watching Jeff Corwin, he wrestled a gleason.


More information on the gleason, by Benjamin:

It's very feminizing. It can eat bears. It eats anything that is meat. It can gobble up a whole elephant all at one time.

Greenfingers Strikes Again

Benjamin does not create studio art. He lives it. So enthusiastic is he about experiencing the painting process that he invites other creatures in the house to partake in the joy.

Presenting Exhibit A: Buckley's head.  Can you make out the shape of the green paint? That is, indeed, a hand print.

Exhibit B: Buckley's backside. Though less clear, it appears there are the remnants of TWO hand prints.

Though not photographed, there were a number of green marks on the tile floor, the coffee table, one or two on the cushions, and a couple of Hot Wheels cars needed a quick run through the sink due to a shoddy paint job.

And this is why we (temporarily) let most painting take place at preschool.

Spring Flowers

Pretty, pretty, paper flowers. On Thursday, Benjamin and I made these lovely things out of a cut-up egg carton flat and some finger paint.



Mama added some beaded centers on a few when we strung them together.



And the sparkles! Did you know that they now make finger paint with glitter in it? (Mama had almost more fun than Benjamin...)



Mama was inspired by this entry on one of her new favorite blogs for Mamas and kids: The Crafty Crow.

Portrait of a Young Artist

It starts out innocently enough...



One paintbrush. Four colors.



Then he starts getting ideas.



Perhaps two paintbrushes simultaneously would achieve the look I'm going for...



Like an addict he strives for more. Three. Then four.



He steps back to observe his work.



Returns the brushes to their respective colors...



and gleefully contemplates his next idea.



If two brushes were good, why not hands?



And then, before he can stop himself...wrists...and forearms.



He surveys the damage with nary a concern.



And it's back to work.



Who needs four colors when a great big blob of muddy purple will do?

Behold, the Artist

Given that Little P is ever so slightly outgrowing the tendency to put all objects into his mouth, Mama decided to try some art projects with him. Mama also decided that his boredom with all things usual in the house required some more creative stimulation in order to maintain tranquility of mood within the youngest member of The P-Pod. Thus, fingerpaints were purchased, crayons were unearthed, and on a warm summer day last week, Little P began the journey to the interior - getting in touch with his artistic self.

The only obvious thing to do when commencing finger painting for the first time is to do it on a crappy table outside in one's underwear.

As you can see, this was crucial to the success of this project as far as Mama was concerned. Can you imagine this occurring in the living room? Mama shudders.

Have you also noticed that Little P could not help himself? Telltale signs of blue around his mouth betray his lack of self control.

This is what happens to underwear when first exposed to fingerpaints. Mama dares to wonder if puffy paint will come back in style. Little P could create his own line of decorated diapers!

Little P's first (and only) fingerpaint creation so far. It is taped to the dated mirrored walls in the living room. In fact, Mama thought that maybe she could cover the entire mirrored wall with Little P originals. She thinks it might beat looking at herself all day long.

Caveat - As Mama modeled fingerpainting, she did make some marks on this particular canvas, namely the red starrish objects and some of the blue dots.

Incidentally, that same day Mama introduced Little P to crayons. The picture below was created entirely by him and is his first original piece in crayon. He has produced many pieces since as he is quite prolific. He employs a technique he refers to as the "scribble and grind" which gives the appearance of stray lines with little globs of heavy texture.

And here we see the tools of the trade.

Let it be known that his dining table also doubles as an art table. He has mentioned that if anyone is interested in contributing to his future as an artist, he would be happily accept a donation of a used child's art easel.

Mama rather likes confining him to a high chair while he colors.

Unfortunately, he has already left his mark on two walls, three windows, and the floor.

The artist, hard at work.

Here he thinks about his next move, gaining inspiration from that which lies on the other side of the kitchen window.

Coloring makes a boy happy!

And then he discovered the common pen. Oh, dear. He can unscrew a pen and pop out the spring faster than you can say "Jack Nicholson." He's a dextrous one, I tell you.