Budding Artists.

When Amelie was about one I thought it would be a good idea to get her to paint a canvas to hang on the wall.  She just loved painting and drawing - in fact she still does.  I find little pictures and now stories and notes all over the house.  Sometimes they are just so cute.  There is nothing better than tidying her room or going through her school bag and finding a little note which says I love my mummy.  Here is a note I recently found.

Since then I have made it an annual event.  I buy the girls a couple of canvases each, this time I picked a pack of four up for £5 in the range.  We get out all of my paints and I let them go crazy.

I don't care if they make a mess and just paint the whole thing brown.  I just love the fact that once they are hung on the wall you can see their artistic abilities develop.  I do however wish I had put an apron on Harriet before getting the paint out as she pretty much ruined her top.

This year Amelie painted a house and a picture of Dover Castle.  Harriet had a great time mixing the paint on her canvas, creating a nice purple / brown shade.

I still think Amelie's first painting back in 2010 is my favourite.  Once the girls have finished their paintings we wait for them to dry and then hang them on their bedroom walls.  Harriet is still a bit small to understand what is going on but Amelie will often talk about her paintings and gets really excited when I suggest we should do another one.  I think that this is a great way to encourage their creativity without any preconceived ideas about what the end result should look like.