Rainy Day Art

Today as we ate lunch, Emery decided that he wanted to paint. We have never really done much painting around this house as so many little kids and paint is a recipe for an intense mess! However, he got the idea in his head as Oliver was watching the "How Great Thou Art" DVD that we ordered from Barry Stebbing's art class that Ashlynn and Emery took last fall. So, I dug out the paints and easel.

He has now been painting since noon (it's 6:40 pm) with a short break so we could run to the Scholastic Book Fair for teachers and get some new books.

He started with a painting of a camel, then moved on to Noah's Ark in the flood, then Noah's Ark after the flood (complete with rainbow), then our big blue van, and is now painting the farm. He has a list that he brainstormed on the way to and from the book fair and he's working his way down. A portrait of his mom is next on the list! :)

Emery's first painting of the day, a camel.

 Of course, once the other kids got wind of his idea they wanted to join in the fun. Oliver and Ellie each made two finger paintings before Ellie moved on to her Kumen coloring book and Oliver used real paint to paint a tornado, Bowser, and finally a beautiful rainbow (Seth taught him ROY G BIV a couple weeks ago and he's been obsessed with it since).

Oliver and Ellie's first finger paintings.

Emery's finished camel picture.

I asked him how he learned to make waves like that and he said that's how they look in the movies! Amazing.

 The big girls came up a bit later and wanted to paint, too. Ashlynn painted a purple unicorn complete with a bloody wing (I took the photo before she added the red paint) that a lion took a bite out of. What imagination!

Ana mostly copied Ashlynn, but that's her style. Her painting turned out wonderful as well.

Ashlynn's purple unicorn.

Emery's third painting of the day, Noah's Ark after the flood.

Ana's abstract painting.

Deep concentration.

What a wonderful day of impromptu art! I never would have instigated this because I think it's such a mess and I spend the majority of my day cleaning up necessary messes (think dishes, laundry, etc). But, how thankful I am that I got on board with the idea. Emery is now certain that he'll be an artist when he grows up - and maybe play video games just on Fridays! ;)