The Art-a-Thon is Back

Princess Sparkle painted this sometime last year at her pre-school, I believe when she was still 3.  I love everything about this painting.  I love the colors, the design, the brushstrokes, the simplicity and I love that my daughter did it.  I saved it and saved it and finally got a frame for it a couple weeks ago.  As much as I want to save every picture she paints and draws, it’s just not realistic and most of them get thrown away.  The special ones get photographed and put in her digital portfolio, but this one…this one I knew that not only could I never throw it away, but that it needed a frame and a permanent place on our wall.  I’ve painted with my daughter plenty of times and what usually happens is a simple picture starts to emerge, then another color is added, and another and more and more until it’s just one giant smear of paint usually somewhere in the brown color story.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, I remember doing that quite a bit when I was a kid too…more, more, more!  So to see this beautiful and simple painting that shows so much restraint and maturity, as well as confidence… I was amazed.  And inspired.  

For one of my birthday gifts my husband brought me a stack of pre-cut wood to paint on (I paint on wood panels, as opposed to canvas) and took the liberty of scheduling me 4 Art-a-Thon‘s this year.  My first 24 hour Art-A-Thon will be January 27th-28th (Friday evening to Sat Evening).  Out of everything that my husband can give me, the gift of time and encouragement so that I can paint is probably what means the most.  In case you forgot, I had my first 24 hour Art-a-Thon a couple years ago, wherein I had 24 hours to produce 3 paintings (I set the parameters ahead of time, including subject matter and number of paintings).  It was a great experience with some decent results.  I’d like to encourage anyone else who wants to participate to do so….especially you artists turned stay-at-home-moms who seem to have let art slip through the cracks as life and motherhood took over.  

What a lucky wife and mom I am to have a family who encourages and inspires me where my first love, art, is concerned.