Kids are so great!

Today two of my grandkids came to stay while their mom was working. Since it was the last day for them to come here before school starts again, they decided they wanted to paint.

It's been some time since I've had them in the studio since I had so much stuff out all over the place with the wax,etc. Today was special as their granddad pointed out....last day to paint for awhile.

So out came the artist quality watercolors (only kind they've ever used). I hunted for something to paint on and came up with rag mat board. The nine year old pointed out that sister Kayleigh's mat board wasn't as large as his....so back to the bin of mat board so they could be fairly equal. I got all the water, brushes, paper towels and everything out and left them to go at it.

I came back later and they had switched painting spots and Brendan told me they were working on each others work....(collaboration in youngsters already). I noted that they had chosen a complimentary color scheme and pretty good, minimalist composition. (Wondering if they've been watching more than I thought.) Next time I came back they explained that they were going to combine the works by placing two of the pieces together (good gosh, a diptych).........and how they might put the smaller piece in somewhere to add to it, maybe, but maybe not. Heck, they even have been subscribing to my thought processes of relationships. I asked if they wanted to add some marks or drawing to the work. They worked really densely with the watercolor and couldn't lay light over dark as they must have been watching Gran with acrylic. They thought about it but decided, no, not on these, just keep it simple and start a new piece. But I saw them both pencil in hand going at some of the other pieces of mat board. Brendan told me this was really gonna be good. He told his granddad the same thing when he came in to check on them. ...Said they were getting LOTS better at painting.

I can't believe I didn't take a picture. Take my word for it.....blue and orange for the diptych. Blue, green, yellow analogous combinations with a tree shape no less for the extra piece.