True Colors

Heidi’s pretty brave, but I think her friend Erica may have surpassed her recently, having a paint party for three kids (and I tend to count Elaina as at least one and a half.  I’m nearly certain Elaina has extra arms that come out whenever anything exceptionally messy is involved.  I've never actually seen more than two of her arms, but I’m quite sure that I’ve had both my hands occupied with her and watched as she’s managed to grab something else.  There’s never time to look down and see whether I’ve still got “both” of her hands or not, so the speculation of third and fourth arms remains just that.)

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?  A nice little girl, in a white (white?!) t-shirt, in front of a pristine white canvas. 

Look at the girl in this picture.  You can tell what’s about to happen.  She’s going to daintily and carefully paint her little masterpiece, planning out each rainbow and unicorn in advance.  In fact, if you concentrate, you can hear the gears spinning in her head as she plans how to execute her work of art.  Measure twice and cut once, that’s what this little girl’s all about. 

Well…someone’s little girl, maybe…not mine. 

Let’s look at that picture again.  Elaina’s not so much thinking about what she’s painting, as about that she’s painting.  She’s thinking about paint.  She’s stirring it and seeing how gloppy it is, how it runs down the brush and drips into the can, and oh, what a beautiful color!  Oh, it’s planning, of a sort.  But there aren’t rainbows and unicorns in this plan.  This is about color and texture and intuition. 

She starts out slowly, getting a feel for the medium.  I don’t think she’s painted with real paint before, and she might be a little stunned that no one’s saying “Wait-wait-wait-wait!” in a nervous, horrified voice.

Here, she’s remarkably clean still.  You can see the picture is no longer pristine, and she’s wrangled some new colors, but she still hasn’t unleashed her true inner artist.

“So…this is really okay, huh?

“You know I’m wearing white?

“It’s paint.

“Makes colors…here on the canvas…when I do this.

“You guys are good with that?”

Elaina employs an interesting technique—part finger-painting, part brush painting.  I’d love to see some cute smiles, but I don’t think there’s a single picture with her looking up from her work.  Just one of those dedicated artists, I guess. 

Aside:  It has been awhile since the last post….  Doesn’t Elaina look much older?  She’s got the whole “little girl hair” look going now.  I think it’s adorable—not that I disliked the “little balding man” look, but this is cuter still.