The Mischievous Mommy

The last few weeks have definitely been quite hectic for Eve and I and the time we spend together creating I have truly treasured. It is a magical moment of peace and creative ideas where anything is possible. For this particular painting, "The Forest," Eve was quite chatty while drawing and described the trees she was drawing and how it was raining.

Now, I love landscapes just as much as the next person, but if I am painting them I definitely prefer acrylic. Acrylic is forgiving and has more depth so I usually avoid using watercolor for landscapes by sticking in my comfort zone and use acrylics.

That being said, one of the magical things about this collaboration process is the amount it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and let Eve teach me new ways of painting. I promised myself to paint a rainy, wooded forest in under 30 minutes to prevent myself from getting too focused on the details and also accept my mistakes as creative accidents. For the rain itself all I had to do is dip my fan brush in water and stroke downward to create a light rain. The ink pen that Eve uses turns into a blue tinged grey when wet and takes on it's own form quite easily. I am learning how to use this in my favor and if I am not careful it can definitely over power any other colors or shapes being used, as well as destroy Eve's initial lines. (It's a learning process that's for sure!)



In Eve's drawing, right in the center, I could see a very light pen mark that curved over and under. I decided to turn it into a bridge where I would later add two lovers hiding under a red umbrella, sharing a romantic moment hidden in peace. The light mist gives it a whimsical feel and I can almost feel the humidity and refreshing breeze that is filled with the invigorating smell a forest gives after a fresh rain.

"The Forest" tries to capture a hidden moment between to lovers as they embrace each other under an umbrella, taking cover from the light rain. As they stand on the bridge, soaking in all the invigorating smells of a forest after a fresh rain, it becomes a beautiful, peaceful moment where they can truly appreciate the beauty of each other and their surroundings.

As all of our collaborations start, Eve created her own sketch with an ink pen which I then use to turn into a watercolor painting. The sketch is completely her own with no instruction given from me, I simply use her creativity to inspire me to create a painting. 

If you were to ask a little girl today what her favourite Disney Character would be, 9 out of 10 times they would say Elsa or Anna.

Eve is obsessed and that is putting it lightly. She will belt out her own version of "Let It Go"
(which consists of the chorus line repeated over and over) and odds are this will usually happen at 2 AM.

My neighbors just love us.

For this collaboration she continued to sing "Let It Go" throughout her drawing and talked how it was Elsa on the mountain. When she handed it to me to paint I asked her what she would like, obviously the answer was Elsa.

I gave it a few minutes while I tried to figure out where I could put Elsa and began to sketch. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of Eve's original sketch and only have the photo below of her drawing with some of my pencil lines added. Whoops! Lesson learned.


As all of our collaborations start, Eve created her own sketch with an ink pen which I then use to turn into a watercolor painting. The sketch is completely her own with no instruction given from me, I simply use her creativity to inspire me to create a painting.

 

Blueberries.

Eve LOVES them, especially frozen blueberries.

So as she sat and ate frozen blueberries, more than any child should probably have, a strange thing began to start happening. She began to change before my very eyes! She was becoming... BLUE!

Seriously though, blue.

EVERYWHERE.

I brought Eve over to the mirror and she dissolved into giggle fits about her new look, I believe this is what inspired her to help me create, "Mr. Blueberry Giraffe."

I have been so excited to not only to continue collaborating with her, but because there are just SO many ways we can! Since she usually starts the painting and I finish it I thought, this time, I would try letting her have control of the paint and I the drawing.

I had recently finished a giraffe sketch that I was planning to paint solo just that morning when I realized it would be a great way to kick off this idea.



SO after a much needed bath, Eve sat down to paint, of course another bath would eventually be inevitable.

I love watching her paint, I envy her greatly. A child's strong confidence and their lack of fear of making mistakes is beautiful and something I think we all lose as we get older. I don't even think the idea that it is even possible to make a "mistake" could ever cross her mind. She is still in that innocent phase of childhood where negativity hasn't seeped in and damaged the pureness of her mind. This is one of the many ways she has become the greatest art teacher I could ever wish for.

Now back to Mr. Blueberry Giraffe. As Eve and I talked while she painted she showed me how the Giraffe had eaten blueberries just like her, hence why his mouth was so blue. Because his hands were blue from eating he had forgotten and touched his head covering himself in blue, much like the reflection she saw looking in the mirror.

From there on she just enjoyed the painting process and used different colors. (I wish I could peek into her mind to hear her all of her thoughts) She had just gotten her hands into the painting when all of a sudden she decided now would be a good time to go blow some bubbles.

So off to the bath and then to the park for bubbles.

She went to bed that night leaving me a giraffe filled with lovely shades of blueberry and her inspiration led me to a bubble blowing blueberry giraffe. (quite the tongue twister) I decided to fill in the eyes and add some detailing to make the giraffe a bit quirky. I saw what could be a pipe in the two black markings and realized it would be the perfect bubble blowing pipe for Mr. Blueberry Giraffe.

 
Mr. Blueberry Giraffe had two favorite things, blowing bubbles and eating blueberries. He would be hard pressed to say which one he loved more. One day he ate WAY too may blueberries, they say it was close to a thousand! Despite his sore tummy, he thought nothing of it, and sat under his favorite tree where every morning he used his beloved red pipe to blow bubbles. Mr. Giraffe would spend hours watching them drift off into the sky wondering about the journeys each would have.

But there was something different about today!

He had eaten so many that he began to hiccup... and hiccup... and as he began to blow his bubbles carefully watching the first one come out he was astonished, it was BLUE! He was so startled that he jumped up causing it to pop right on his nose. Mr. Giraffe went cross eyed as he stared down at his nose, it had turned BLUE! He dissolved into a giggle fit thinking this was the most fabulous thing that had ever happened to him.

And to this day every time Mr. Giraffe blows through his bubble pipe he makes sure to eat fruits and veggies of EVERY color just so he can watch his rainbow colored bubbles fly away on their magical adventures.
< This is the story that I told Eve about the painting, being a mom with a fussy eater I HAD to throw in that last bit. >

Today's collaboration portrays my most precious treasure, my daughter. Once she was finished her drawing she thrust it at me saying, "Paint, Paint, Paint?!?!" to which I obviously responded, "SURE!". I then asked her what she wanted me to paint and she said, "EVE!"

 O boy.

I began to wish she said something easy like a wooded forest or a porcupine!

As I sat their staring at her drawing I had no idea where I was going to even begin. Slowly but surely I found a home for her beautiful face using one of her lines for the jawline, once I had that the rest just flowed.

I struggled with certain areas due to the amount of lines she had drawn and that the black ink bleeds when wet, changing the colors I initially paint with. I am still learning to find a balance of what I can paint while staying true to her original lines. Due to this learning process there are some collaborations where either mine or Eve's work becomes more dominant.






As all of our collaborations start, Eve created her own sketch with an ink pen which I then use to turn into a watercolor painting. The sketch is completely her own with no instruction given from me, I simply use her creativity to inspire me to create a painting. 

Yesterday I posted this photo of my lovely daughter, Eve with one of her most recent drawings. Along with the photo I asked, "What do you see?" to the viewer. The range of responses that I got is why I LOVE what a child can bring out of an adult. As we get older we tend to create this box that everything is supposed to fit neatly into, all of our ideas and goals in life are according to some sort of plan.

As a child there is no box. It is just endless freedom to explore any and every possible avenue of creativity and adventure. Although children look up to us for guidance and instruction it is equally as important that we take time off from our busy lives to just sit and listen to them, no matter how strange their ideas may seem. Take a turn to become the student and let a child be the teacher, let them help you remember what it is like to just let go and run free!

When I look at Eve's drawings all sorts of pictures flood through my head of what it could be. I love that by asking other people, "What do you see," it showed the beauty of a child's artwork and what it brought out in each individual. Almost every single person saw something different in her shapes and lines that had forced them to think outside the box and come up with what could be, according to them.

I have listed the responses down below.


Jamie H. - Flock of geese! 

Natalie B. - An umbrella! 

Mike M. - I see an insect between grass 

Wow.

I just want to start off by saying from the bottom of my heart thank you. Thank you to everyone who has supported Eve and I before all of this attention and to all those of recent as well. I am very humbled by all of this support and know that none of this would be possible without God providing me with this gift and giving me my most beloved treasure, Eve. Without Eve and her constant inspiration that motivates me to create and explore art outside of my comfort zone I would still be stuck in my cozy nook.

Eve is truly my muse.

I truly believe every single person is given a talent or gift that once sparked should be constantly flamed and encouraged, it is part of what makes you unique and fills you with passion for love, life and laughter.

I encourage each and every one of you to share your talents and knowledge with your own children, grandchildren or nieces and nephews. The end result may be special but the journey you share to get there will be magical and those memories will last forever.

I also wanted to grab this opportunity to give a little more insight into our collaborations.

Eve and I have spent hours on end drawing together and painting canvas after canvas. I loved being able to share my passion with her and love how excited she is to partake. I have been dreaming of the day that we could sit down and talk about what we could create together and the vision she sees, nothing is more amazing then a child’s innocent insistence that anything is possible. However, her being not even 2 and a half I felt that was at least a year or more away. With her limited vocabulary we have still been able to enjoy our time spent together and it slowly dawned on me that we had already been collaborating this whole time!

That thought was what was going through my head when I was going through her piles of drawings and the one, that is now “The Red Boat, caught my eye. I had been letting her use my black ink pen and realized that if I used watercolor I could use the shapes and darkness to create a painting that I would have NEVER been able to even think of on my own.  Without those shapes and markings of endless possibilities from a precious child’s point of view absolutely NONE of those paintings could or ever would exist. Eve has pushed me way past my comfort zone and I am very grateful for this, it is truly motivating and inspiring for me. When I do paint it is done as speed painting. They are all created in a short time frame so I can’t sit back and over analyze the process, I want to keep it simple and true. I am never trying to paint over her marks but blend them into mine to become a collaboration. Just as my painting forms I make sure to follow her outlines and leave some of her drawing visible keeping it a collaboration, it is a fine balance that I am continuing to learn from.

At this point our collaborations begin with her and when she is finished her drawing she passes it off to me so she can watch me paint. If there are any she wants to keep as is, I can assure you, she will not hand them over. I find myself choosing the ones that are the most challenging for me to expand on as this forces me to grow. She enjoys watching me paint them and often will suggest different colors to use. As these next few months go by I look forward to letting her take part even more by letting her finish my paintings and perhaps I do the drawing and she paints! This journey of ours has JUST begun and if I look through it from her perspective, our creativity and possibilities are truly endless.

If at any point Eve does not want to continue these collaborations I will happily let her move on to something else. Even though I am an artist I heartily accept she may not be, and when and if she moves on to something else I will support her 100%. I am already just so grateful to have shared this with her to this point.  All the profit we make from our collaborations will be going directly into her college fund, this way it can support whatever dream she ends up pursuing.

For all those with children in their lives I encourage you to try this with them, even if you don’t think you can draw you might just surprise yourself! It is an amazing and fun process and I encourage you to message me your creations and I will try to post them on this blog to share with others.

Thank you again for all of your support and kind words!

Eve and Ruth

This collaboration was definitely the toughest as of yet. When I watch Eve draw her masterpieces I can usually pick up on a hidden picture or she'll chat with me about what she was drawing and I can use that for inspiration.

This time? She gave me nothing to go on...so I began to think.


One of the most important thing to me about collaborating with Eve is to make sure her vision is included and the finished piece still contains portions and shapes of her original piece. So as I sat their staring, trying to find direction, two random thoughts popped in my head. The movie Lady and the Tramp and how much Eve loves to spot Swiper the fox when we watch Dora. So lo and behold, that is where this painting drew it's inspiration.
The abstract part of the woman's fox headpiece comes from all those beautiful shapes Eve sketched out that I didn't want to lose, so I filled them in with color to help shape the headpiece.


As all of our collaborations start, Eve created her own sketch with an ink pen which I then use to turn into a watercolor painting. The sketch is completely her own with no instruction given from me, I simply use her creativity to inspire me to create a painting.