My son Greysen's ability to paint may all just be happenstance. I like to think that there was some influence behind it, which I will explain in the next two blogs. Who knows if this is just a phase and he changes his mind in the future though? I don't know as of now, but I do know that it is a fun thing that we get to enjoy together.
The above image is the first painting I did after Greysen was born. He was old enough to hold his head up on his own, but not old enough to be put down plus being our first born - he was rarely put down. We also had my sister, Haley and her husband living with us at the time. My sister is an avid climber, so when I saw an image similar to the one above after they had taken my husband and I out climbing for the first time, I thought it was a good way to remember it.
So, Haley and I pulled out the paint and Greysen sat on my lap in my left arm and I painted with my right hand as I normally would. This is not a super sophisticated painting by any means, so I was easily able to maneuver and paint with Greysen. He watched in awe the entire time. He was 4-5 months old at the time.
The next 7 to 8 months began a series of paintings with Greysen on my lap.
I like to paint places that we have been or seen and this is the first painting of a memory with Greysen. We went to Murphy Lake in Alpine, Wyoming for the first time with Greysen (this is a special place, as it is where Chase and I got engaged). We sat by the edge of the water and just enjoyed the day. The water there is so crisp and clear, plus it is usually relatively quiet there.
The above two were paintings I had done before but decided to do again with Greysen and a different twist to them. They are bolder than their original counterparts.
All of these paintings were done with Greysen before he turned 1 year old. We then had a huge change and after a few months, ended up in the mountains in California. I was at home with Greysen during this time.
I am not a scientist by any means, but I love brain science and have been reading anything I could get my hands on for years now. Why is that important? Well, my obsession started right around the time I was staying at home with Greysen. I found out that he was creating pathways in his brain that would eventually help for future learning to put it in simple terms. I loved understanding that we as parents, have the ability to truly make an impression on their future.
So what did I do? I went and bought paint for him. He had already seen me do it, so now it was his turn. He was about 18 months old at the time.
As previously mentioned, I can be a bit type A.... so I initially did not want him to get paint everywhere. Yeah, so that wasn't going to happen. I realized I needed to just let him go. Kids need to touch stuff and make messes. So I let him go for it. I showed him what to do and had my fingers in the paint with him. I talked to him about colors at this age and even about mixing.
Yes, we put it on the fridge and he was so proud of it. We kept it up for a while and even created more. And yes, he did get paint on the shirt he has on there.
Stay tuned to see where he is at now next Thursday!