Creative Acts Part Two: Painting and Drawing

I’ve never been good at art, and I honestly never had an interest in making it until I was an adult, when I moved to the mountains and thought how amazing it would be to paint the beautiful sunsets and sunrises we saw on the horizon each morning and night. But I have loved studying art for as long as I can remember. I find it amazing the way an artist can recreate an image with simple paints or pencils, all while adding layers of emotion and depth. 

Perhaps because I didn’t grow up painting or learning how to draw, it’s been important to me for our kids to learn about art. Art is unlike writing, which we talked about yesterday, in that it’s not something that everyone uses on a daily basis. But I think perhaps this makes it even more important for us to practice, because it’s something we do simply for the sake of creating beauty. 

Have you ever considered how many things God created just for the sake of beauty? He could have made all our food colorless and bland, yet He created a beautiful array of colored vegetables and fruit and an endless buffet of flavor. He could have only created grass and trees, yet He wove flowers into His tapestry of nature. He could have made the earth flat and barren, but He built mountains and dug valleys. He could have only created the animals we needed for food, but He made more species than I count and gave Adam the task of naming each. Yet in our culture today, we rarely create just for the sake of beauty. Our days are numbered by task lists and time-blocked schedules with no margin left for aesthetics. Yet the moments I feel the most connected to my Creator aren’t when I’m checking things off my list, but when I’m creating alongside Him. Perhaps if we teach our kids to create for no other reason than beauty, they will carry this gift into adulthood. Perhaps they will struggle a little less with the never-ending to do lists, the need to prove ourselves worthy by our performance.

So what does this look like in our day to day lives? We are all busy, and it is easy to shunt aside art when our schedule is crammed full. I have built art into our homeschool schedules during different seasons, yet I’ve found the greatest benefit comes from the art we do just for the sake of creating. There are a few strategies that make the artistic process easier for our kids that I want to share today.

1. Remember that art is about the process not the product. Social media has ushered in an era where we see elaborate children’s crafts being celebrated on a daily basis. It’s tempting to think that doing art with our children only counts if it is a focused A is for Alligator craft, an elaborate gift for a grandmother or teacher, or something so complicated that I can’t even do it as an adult. But that’s not the point of art; remember creating is about ideas, it’s about the way our children are interacting with what’s in front of them, scaffolding their knowledge and connecting ideas. If you struggle with feeling like there has to be a “point” to your children’s art, an end-result worthy of Instagram, then I want to encourage you to turn your kids loose with whatever art supplies you have and let your children create without any forced directions or end product in mind. My children daily make things out of the random bits and bobs around the house: “cat toys” out of pipe cleaners and yarn, doll houses out of empty Amazon boxes, book covers for their newest comic book they’re writing painted with watercolors. This is especially important if  you have a child who struggles with perfectionism; one of my children in particular is never happy with the end result when we do a structured craft or art project. But she loves creating things she comes up with on her own. 

2. Fill your home with true art. Our homes should be places of beauty. We inspire our children’s art by placing beauty around them, but this doesn’t mean you need a “fashionable” home. I’m talking more about the little glimpses of beauty we place in our children’s sight, not the most beautiful furniture from Wayfair, or the paint color your favorite blogger chose. I’m talking about gathering a simple vase of flowers, creating order from the chaos with aesthetic baskets, displaying your grandmother’s china or the blanket your mom knitted. This will look different depending on your family’s tastes, but my point is not to get hung up on what the internet calls “home decor” and look for small ways to bring beauty into your home.

3. Study great artists together.Of all the things we have added to our homeschool over the years, artist and picture study has surprised me the most. I took art history in college and loved it, but I still didn’t expect to enjoy studying great art with my kids as much as I do. Kids are much more observant than we give them credit for; I’m always amazed at what they notice in art. Try showing your kids a famous painting, something by Da Vinci or Rembrandt; have everyone sit and look at it for a few minutes without talking, then ask what they notice. I bet you’ll be surprised by how insightful your kids are. Fill your homes with books showcasing famous art as well as biographies of artists so your kids see how they lived  as children. Take your kids to the art museum– this one may seem intimidating, but it can absolutely be done if you spend some time preparing. Study some of the art they’re going to see ahead of time, discuss expectations for quiet and not touching, and find something to keep them engaged during it like a scavenger hunt.

4. Turn to nature when you feel stuck. I’m convinced that nature is the antidote to all creative struggles. Much as we talked about yesterday with books being a fuel for good writers, nature is a fuel for all creativity. Nature inspires our writing, it awakens our imaginations. It drives us to want to learn to paint, much as I desired when I moved to the mountains. It begs us to grow a garden, to pick flowers to arrange on our table, to create a new recipe with what’s growing in our vegetable patch. Try it the next time your kids are bored or don’t know what to paint, draw, or write: take them outside and set them up to paint. Or go on a nature walk and have them draw or write about something they see. Try splatter painting, an activity I refuse to allow in my house 🤣. Or just turn them loose to play in the yard and watch how their imagination takes off. I guarantee if you begin spending consistent time in nature, your kids’ creativity will come alive.

There are so many aspects of creativity for our kids we could discuss, but we are going to focus on just one more this week, one which is arguably THE single most important thing for our kids to spend time on: imaginative play. I hope you’ll join me again on Friday as we discuss why we need a return to prioritizing play for kids and how to make time for it.