Painting #7 Kristen's Daisies & Painting with the Grands

Kristen's Daisies 4"x 4"

Kristen's Daisies is a tiny little 4" x 4" painting I did for the wonderful woman I work with for her birthday. You guessed it, her name is Kristen. This is our last year of working together, after nine good years, as I am retiring and she is going to graduate school. I was experimenting with painting very small. This was one of my first. I've started 3 canvases that are even smaller, 2" x 2".

I recently read about the Art Abandonment Project and thought it would be fun to try it with the little paintings. The idea for the project came from Michael and Andrea Matus deMeng's book of the same name. The project revolves around artists of all types creating random acts of art and leaving their creations in various locations around the globe. Sometimes with little messages and sometimes not. I always liked the idea of finding treasure but the idea of leaving treasures for others is even better! My goal is to make a few and leave them around Hilo town during Christmas time.

This past October I had the pleasure of spending 5 days with my granddaughter, Kiana, her husband Andrew and their two kids. Pua is 3 years old and Kekai is 5 years old. I took a big bag full of paints, brushes, canvases and other fun stuff to make art with the kids while I was there. 

Kiana & Pua painting together.

During our first painting session, the kids choose the colors they wanted and did their thing. They definitely had their own ideas of how and what they would paint and I realized right away they did not need my direction.

Pua's Painting #2 above and #3 below.

Pua choose warm bright colors as her palette: reds and yellows. She liked mixing pink when we added some white so that became one of her trademark moves. She also liked using lots of water with her paint, the biggest brushes I had, and the foam roller. Her pictures usually had puddles on them but once they dried were beautiful.      

Kekai liked all colors and had a great mixing style. He would add each new color on top of the old one and mix away with his brush. Each new color was an exciting discovery.

Kekai mixing purple in painting #2.

                                 

Kekai's finished painting #1.

Kekai showing his favorite animal cu

Kekai's painting #2:
more color mixing and etching on canvas

We also made fun crazy cut-out animals with scrape pieces of paper and marker pens. When you hang out with little kids all they want to do is play! I had such a fun time. I can't wait to go back and do it again.

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