Painting with my daughter
May 29th, 2008
I have always loved to draw and paint and do crafty kinds of things. Even though my mom isn’t very artistic herself, she always had several old margarine tubs around filled with crayons, and pads of construction paper. My brother and I were encouraged to use scissors, glue, glitter, paper, yarn, foil, toothpicks, and pretty much whatever we wanted—within reason, of course—to create our art.
Maybe you’ve seen my alphabet girls book set on Flickr? I used to draw stuff like that all the time, often with the Prang art kit my brother gave me for Christmas one year (kinda like this one). That was one of my favorite gifts ever. I still have the colored pencils that came with that set, believe it or not. Annalie uses them all the time.
Even before I had Annalie, I always had a dresser drawer full of crayons, markers, scissors, glue sticks, glitter, and stickers. When our friends with kids came over to our house, I would just pull the whole drawer out and bring it to the dining room table where they could cut and glue and color to their heart’s content while we chatted over coffee with their parents.
Occasionally I would baby-sit, and then I would draw with the kids. Sometimes I’d bring out old magazines and we’d make collages of our favorite things, or color collages where we’d each try to find as many pictures of one color as we could. Usually I’d be rewarded with a masterpiece or two, which I would of course hang up on the fridge.
A couple of days ago I was sitting at the table finishing up a mug that Brenda commissioned me to paint for her when Annalie wandered into the kitchen. She saw what I was doing and said, “I have a great idea, Mama! I can paint with you!”
She got out her watercolors and paintbrushes while I set up paper and water. We chatted as we painted about which brushes we liked best, how much longer till Daddy comes home, what happens when you mix yellow and purple together, the bird she had seen outside earlier.
The late-afternoon sun, bright and golden, streamed into the kitchen as I painted with my daughter.
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This is what life is supposed to be like! I love this post.
What a lovely moment.
And that’s so awesome that you have artwork from when you were little. I don’t have any. And I really wish I did. Especially from when I was 9 or 10. I did a little comic strip for my friends at school. I have no idea what it was about but I’d bet it’d be a hoot to read it now.
What a beautiful moment! You captured it so poetically, both with your words and through the lens. Great post!
And, you found my new blog during my “soft opening.” (Like from Ocean’s 13). I plan on announcing the Grand Opening later today, but I’m trying to think of a fabulous giveaway idea first. Hubster suggested giving away our dog. Haha! I don’t think that would have the irresistible effect I’m going for :o)
Bonding over art is wonderful!
How lovely that Annalie shares this love of art and creating with you! Such a great thing to bond over.
And you felt all warm and glowy and the world stopped for a moment JUST FOR YOU AND HER…and it was forever lovely and beautiful and etched in your mind.
I love those moments.
Ditto to OMSH.
Great post, Bethany :)
Annalie is so patient and neat! My boys would have had paint all over creation – although for that moment of peaceful solidarity – cleaning the walls would be worth it.
Very sweet photos.
Great idea Annalie!! :)
Oh this makes me happy. I too have two big bins of art supplies for um, when people with kids come over. :)
Also, even still, one of my favorite things to do with my mom is craft. She’s currently trying to teach me how to sew. It’s pretty much going the same way it did when she tried to teach me to drive. I’m bursting into tears alot and stomping off ;)
How beautiful! This is what life should be like.
SAJ and gorillabuns say it best, this is truly what life is supposed to be like. I have all the tools, I just need to sit down and convince J to sit with me for longer than ten minutes.
perfect. just perfect.
Sounds like the perfect afternoon!
That is wonderful! I really need to do more creative things with my kids. It’s kind of shocking how much I don’t do with them, seeing as I’m a pretty artistic person myself. I need to get over the messy-ness of it.
I love this, this is my world! Though with the ages of my kids it is rather a messy ordeal. I love creating and painting and find such a joy in the stress release and peace of it.
I love these moments too. Life flies by at 100 mph… so it’s nice to have time stand still and do something special like this… just the two of you. I cherish these memories with my little girl as well… because she is so sweet and my only princess. I hope she’ll always want to do arts and crafts with me…