The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. Eugene Delacroix

Ever wonder why an artist paints the same painting over and over and over? There is usually the “one” that becomes the famous one, but there are multiple “drafts” of it before that one. Perhaps they are working toward perfection. Perhaps they are just looking for personal satisfaction.

Recently Breezy and I visited “Bubbles and Brushes” again; it’s a place where you pay by the hour to use all their supplies, and pay another small fee for the canvases. She wanted to paint the mermaid that she’d painted about this time last year. She’s six now and in first grade. She first painted it when she was five and in kindergarten. I was curious to see how the painting would turn out this time around.

I helped her mix the paint colors, but that’s all I did. She did the rest on her own. There were some directions on the back of the picture for how to create the mermaid, but she very adamantly told me that “I don’t have to follow the rules!” OK. She’s a very independent artist. So, she didn’t follow the rules. She just eyed the painting and copied it to her liking.

She’d given the first mermaid to her mother. She wanted to give this one to her mom too. I was trying to convince her to give it to me since she’d already given one to her mom! Ha ha. Gigi loves her paintings. She said, “just pick something out and I’ll paint it for you.”

She worked really hard on the mermaid. She’d selected a larger canvas than she usually does so it took her quite a while to paint the big area. But, she took her time and did a really fine job.

The Mermaid painting recently when Breezy is 6; November 2016.

It’s interesting to see what a difference a year makes. She has honed her skills quite a bit, as you can see. As she was working on it, she said several times, “I just love painting.” She really does see herself as an artist. I do too!

The Mermaid painting when Breezy was 5; October 2015.

By the time she got around to painting my canvas she was tired and painted it with her hands and made a real mess and said she didn’t like it. I smoothed out the colors so we could take it home and paint something else on top of it later.

Then she got a little wooden bird house and painted it for me. She glued buttons on it. She wouldn’t let me look at it until she was done. I thought it was so clever how she put the little shutters on the windows. I told her that it would be the very first ornament that I put on my Christmas tree this year.

When I took her home the next day she wanted to know where the mermaid picture was for her mom. I said, “Oh I thought you were giving that to me?” She said, “No! That was for my mom! But I guess you can keep it. I’ll paint something else for her.”

Of course, it’s just at my house. If she wants her mom to have it she can get it the next time she’s over. I don’t want to be a painting hog. But I surely do love her artwork! 😉

Are you an artist?  “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” Vincent Van Gogh

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Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. Oscar Wilde