Well, Celeste, you have inspired me. Again:) And Cate did too!
I have all sorts of "I'm not an artist" thoughts running through my head, and yet I know I want my children to develop their artistic abilities for their own pleasure and the glory of God. Humans have been given such innate creativity! And somehow I've decided I was the one person not given artistic tendencies? Your beautiful nature journal and self-teaching journey have me all abubble with inspiration, and I'm ready to start one too!
And my sweet, sweet girl. She's 5 and a half, and knows she's an artist. She tells me as much all the time...no ego involved, just knows she loves to see things and dream of things and use materials to make them real. And she's proud of her efforts! I've been watching her each week in the art class she's taking, completely open to the process, completely excited about trying and exploring. Each session has a new set of tools, new paints or inks or clays. Usually nothing she's ever touched before. Does she run away and say "I don't know how, I don't think I'd be very good at that"? No. She dives in, happy to try and see what happens. She's fearless in her art, with no internal dialogue holding her back.
I love being humbled. It's good for the soul, no? :)
So, I stopped at Michael's today...Canson journals are 50% off at the moment. So, I got one just for mama. I think I'll start small and work on an acorn we picked up at the park this morning and see how it goes. I'll get out Drawing with Children and work through it. I'll watch some YouTube videos to help me along. I just think it will be so lovely to see something gloriously beautiful and be able to use my eyes and hands to capture it, to know I've diligently worked on building a skill which I'm asking my children to have too.
I'll come back and post my results sometime soon. With no "I know this isn't very good" comments, I promise:)
Love it! And if I can do it, trust me, anyone can! ;) Don't you love the fearlessness of children? Gianna has her perfectionistic moments, but I do love those times when she's caught up in drawing something and is just so pleased with the results. :) And Vincent just today said after finishing the horse lesson from DWC, "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it really look like a horse, but as you can see, I did!" And it didn't look much at all like a horse! LOL But he was just so convinced and happy about his creation, and that's what matters. He got joy out of the process, and I think that's what made him pleased with the result. I'm going to try to keep that in mind for myself too. After all, it is wonderful if one's drawing looks nice in the end, but the close observation you practice while making the drawing is the most important part. :)
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