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This is a thread recording Felicity's first tries painting with acrylics.

Here's today's attempt. I washed her brushes after but that's the only time I touched them. She calls this "Miserable Man By The Pool".

spot;1392084 wrote: Here's today's attempt. I washed her brushes after but that's the only time I touched them. She calls this "Miserable Man By The Pool".




Is that because the lady lounging on the other side of the pool is looking the other way?

How old is Felicity?

Bryn Mawr;1392086 wrote: Is that because the lady lounging on the other side of the pool is looking the other way?


The dark recesses of Felicity's psyche are entirely her own business, I didn't ask.

Ahso!;1392088 wrote: How old is Felicity?


All but one of the girls in spot's Album: Wanderings is Felicity, she's four. The girl bowling the cricket ball is her mother.

Nice photos

That looks a little like Homer Simpson with his hands above his head.

The background greens are impressive. Next time start her with a canvas pre-painted yellow. Also, her emotive representation shows maturity beyond her age.

I'll get a suitable brush so she can prepare her canvas.

This is, I'm informed, Flooded Landscape In Thunderstorm With Rainbow. We had a half hour discussion on brushwork before she loaded her palette, she took a couple of hours working on the canvas.

That is rather well-organized.

Why acrylics at that age, why not poster paints that wash out of clothes and lots of pieces of paper for her just to paint and paint?

It all seems so serious for a four year old when fun and mess should be the name of the game.

Betty Boop;1392487 wrote: Why acrylics at that age, why not poster paints that wash out of clothes and lots of pieces of paper for her just to paint and paint?

It all seems so serious for a four year old when fun and mess should be the name of the game. I have a theory about people that, firstly, the more they explore the more they have available to put out, and secondly that the nature of what they explore is a primary influence on the nature of what they put out. Uncritical admiration for anyone's output is scarcely an incentive toward improvement whether it's from the performer or the observer.

Others have taken Felicity along the poster paint route and doubtless consumed reams of paper in the process. I've no interest in her painting, what I'm doing is setting aside a couple of hours a couple of times a week for self-critical development. It happens to be painting because she said she would be interested to do it.

Well, she seems to have a knack for it.

spot;1392531 wrote:

I've no interest in her painting, what I'm doing is setting aside a couple of hours a couple of times a week for self-critical development.


"Self critical development" ?

And Felicity is a four year old ?

Loosen up man.

Bruv;1392624 wrote: "Self critical development" ?

And Felicity is a four year old ?

Loosen up man.


My thoughts exactly, four??? She should be skipping and giggling and having fun, learning through play.

Betty Boop;1392625 wrote: My thoughts exactly, four??? She should be skipping and giggling and having fun, learning through play.


I have given this some thought, maybe it is just gigglingly good fun for Felicity, but Spot in his analytical way labels it

"Self critical development" in a structured environment......or something.

Betty Boop;1392625 wrote: My thoughts exactly, four??? She should be skipping and giggling and having fun, learning through play.


An hour ago she was in the Coach and Horses swapping first position, plié and pirouette with the barman and they were both giggling, I just left them to it. He'd learned it at the same Theatre School where she stands gazing in for ages on her way past to the zoo, she's asked whether she can go back another day and plague him a bit more.

Besides, I'm not sure there's a great qualitative difference between these and poster painting reams of continuous stationery. It's possible they'll be more easily kept but that's about it. She's discovering questions, not answers.

This one she calls "Street Festival", she was aiming at freeing her strokes from horizontal constraints.

And here's a portrait of the artist as an unbrushed young girl. By me, not her.

........ she was aiming at freeing her strokes from horizontal constraints.


Is that the way she put it ?

Bruv;1392754 wrote: Is that the way she put it ?


No, but it's what she had in mind.

spot;1392756 wrote: No, but it's what she had in mind.


Ah ha !!

OK what have I got in my mind.....right now ?

Bruv;1392759 wrote: Ah ha !!

OK what have I got in my mind.....right now ?


You're thinking I didn't know what Felicity had in mind. I know what she was thinking because we'd had a chat before she started.

Fair enough.

spot;1392764 wrote: You're thinking I didn't know what Felicity had in mind. I know what she was thinking because we'd had a chat before she started.


But she didn't say what you said, what did she say?

Betty Boop;1392771 wrote: But she didn't say what you said, what did she say?


Up and down, push flick push flick push flick.

spot;1392772 wrote: Up and down, push flick push flick push flick.


'she was aiming at freeing her strokes from horizontal constraints' is what you thought, it's not what she said nor thought!!

So....

spot;1392772 wrote: Up and down, push flick push flick push flick.
Translates to.....

she was aiming at freeing her strokes from horizontal constraints.


I wish you could cut the rest of us some of that slack, linguistically.

I'm going to mumble into my beer at this rate. It's exactly what up and down, push flick push flick push flick means.

spot;1392782 wrote: I'm going to mumble into my beer at this rate. It's exactly what up and down, push flick push flick push flick means.


But only to a proud parent

spot;1392782 wrote: I'm going to mumble into my beer at this rate. It's exactly what up and down, push flick push flick push flick means.


Only in your head!

Bruv;1392784 wrote: But only to a proud parent


ooooh I so have another p word to add, but better not :wah:

Anyone would think we both had a pact to gang up on Spot Betty Boop........it just happens we both speak and post in tandem.....with a slight time lapse

Bruv;1392787 wrote: Anyone would think we both had a pact to gang up on Spot Betty Boop........it just happens we both speak and post in tandem.....with a slight time lapse


ah, you'd like me to delete that email with our cunning plan outlined in it then... :sneaky:

spot;1392782 wrote: I'm going to mumble into my beer at this rate. It's exactly what up and down, push flick push flick push flick means.


You go mumble, 'push flick, push, flick' is a pattern, and the painting is a pattern and it's actually a lovely pattern, just stop putting your words into the mouth of a four year old.

Betty Boop;1392789 wrote: ah, you'd like me to delete that email with our cunning plan outlined in it then... :sneaky:


*Trembling*

I believe there is a Board rule about publishing private communications................or so I have heard

I am not one for a lot of abstract stuff, but I kinda like that.

Betty Boop;1392791 wrote: You go mumble, 'push flick, push, flick' is a pattern, and the painting is a pattern and it's actually a lovely pattern, just stop putting your words into the mouth of a four year old.
Actually, young Boop, I distinctly remember saying during Felicity's pre-painting warm-up planning session, "Today I'd like you to aim at freeing your strokes from horizontal constraints". I'm sure those very words were firmly at the forefront of her mind during the execution phase.

spot;1392800 wrote: Actually, young Boop, I distinctly remember saying during Felicity's pre-painting warm-up planning session, "Today I'd like you to aim at freeing your strokes from horizontal constraints". I'm sure those very words were firmly at the forefront of her mind during the execution phase.


oh, I'm sure they were... not

spot;1392800 wrote: Actually, young Boop, I distinctly remember saying during Felicity's pre-painting warm-up planning session, "Today I'd like you to aim at freeing your strokes from horizontal constraints". I'm sure those very words were firmly at the forefront of her mind during the execution phase.


Ah, but of course. The power of suggestion is quite effective.

I'm not sure what Felicity would be painting if she wasn't also having preliminary discussions of brushwork. I think we'll press on rather than change tack. The ground rules are still that she mixes her own palette and nobody handles the brushes but her.

This one's her first try at a seascape:



To "up and down, push flick push flick push flick" we have now added "wobble wobble".

... and masts at sunset in the harbour:

Today's brief was for the sea punching a cliff hard.

But none of it is Felicity having free rein, she's producing what you tell her to produce. Someone else also said something about the 'power of suggestion', she's not free to just produce 'splodges', you're making her conform to 'thinking' rather than just 'doing' which is what child's play is all about. You're are limiting her freedom of expression by expecting her to conform with what you tell her to paint and how to paint.

Betty Boop;1393672 wrote: But none of it is Felicity having free rein, she's producing what you tell her to produce. Someone else also said something about the 'power of suggestion', she's not free to just produce 'splodges', you're making her conform to 'thinking' rather than just 'doing' which is what child's play is all about. You're are limiting her freedom of expression by expecting her to conform with what you tell her to paint and how to paint.What she's doing is constrained immediately by the materials to hand, that's the biggest influence on her output. Discussing the results that come from using different brushes in different ways, giving her a vocabulary to think with, surely expands her capability rather than restricts it. And when I say "today's brief" it's not me imposing it, it's the two of us choosing a subject so that her mind has a focus, she can make choices on the basis of intent rather than random colouring and random movement. She's producing what she finds when she explores. She's got some tools to work with, she's got a topic to investigate (so she ends up with a seascape rather than, for example, a brick wall), she mixes her palette looking for options within that topic rather than finding fifty varieties of brown.

As far as I can see I'm simply providing her with a physical workshop and sufficient words to allow her to think. The education aspect is letting her find out how to use the workshop and equipping her mentally to think about the subject, that's all vocabulary is. I'd be surprised if anyone thought there was no place for any education in the life of a four year old, or that the extent of this education I've described is excessive. I'm fully aware that she also needs to play too, this is a small part of a small bit of her week.

I'm sure Felicity enjoys her time painting. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of time teaching young children the art of a deliberate thought process. The earlier the better in my book. A child cannot do more than the current brain development allows for anyway. I think Felicity is quite expressive in her artwork and the fact that she can communicate to others what it is she's got on canvas is probably exciting for her.

Anyone else notice the man being tossed out of the boat at the bottom? It appears a cyclone or tornado got him.

YZGI;1393680 wrote: Anyone else notice the man being tossed out of the boat at the bottom? It appears a cyclone or tornado got him.looks like the Michelin Man

She has sun-coloured paint streaking her hair, I'm not sure how to get it out. Maybe nobody will notice.

View Across The Bay: