Britches' Art

For quite some time now, my Britches girl has shown an interest in art. When she was younger, she liked more of the "arts and crafts" type thing, but lately, she has really been getting into painting. For over a year now, I have heard her talking about different artists that she watches on PBS, like Donna Dewberry and Bob Ross, but to be quite honest, I never really pay that much attention, because art is not my thing. So I listen politely to her, and show her that I care about what interests her, but then I go about my business and forget all about it. Anyway...

She has started painting some very nice pictures on regular copy paper. Nothing that would sell for money, but a good attempt none the less. I suggested to her that she might want to try painting on canvas, because her copy paper would get too wet and tear after she had put a lot of work into it. That was especially a problem when she would try to paint with watercolors. So we went to Wal-Mart and bought her some small canvases that had no wood frame on them. They were just a piece of cardboard, or wood, or whatever they use, wrapped in canvas. She wanted the small ones, because she wasn't too sure she could fill a big canvas. Well, she used all three of those that came in that pack, and then she went back to painting on copy paper.

I told her I'd be happy to take her back to the store to let her buy more canvases, if she wanted. Yes, she buys her own things, because she has this "thing" about someone buying ANYTHING for her. It's amazing that the kid will even let me buy her food and clothes. It's unreal how upset she gets when someone tries to buy something for her, instead of her buying it with her own money. I have never in my life seen a kid like that - ever. Anyway, she said she would like to go get a few more canvases from the craft store, so she could practice her painting on something that would last a little better than just plain paper. So off to Michaels we went.

It just so happened that they had a special on a 7-pack of canvases when we went. They were $14 for the pack, which made each canvas only $2 a piece. These were the larger ones, too, and this made them cheaper than we got the small ones before. So she decided to go with the 7-pack. She picked up a few paint brushes she had seen Bob Ross use that she felt she needed, and off we went.

The next day, she woke up just itching to paint on her new canvas. So after the little ones went to take a nap, and I knew all her painting would be safe, I gave her some free time to create. I left her alone for about and hour and a half. When I walked out of the room, she had just begun putting some blue paint on the top of the canvas. An hour and a half later, this is what I came back to find.

Needless to say, I was very impressed with her work. Especially considering the fact that this girl has never had an art lesson in her life, but has only watched those shows on PBS and learned from them, and checked out books from the local library and learned from those.

One day, if the time gets right, I may sign her up for professional art lessons. But for now, she has free private tutors via our local public broadcasting station, and they seem to be teaching her pretty well.