"Snow Problems Here!"

They say that if you cannot find happiness, you should make your own. The same applies to "snow-less" snowmen, too, I suppose! Once the thrill of Christmas is over, building those iconic little sentinels - and going back to school :( - are the only things left to do!

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I welcomed both happiness and snowmen in the form of a granddaughter pair seated at a kitchen table laden with an abundance of pretty paper scraps. Who even cared that outside, nature gave us scanty, ice-encrusted snow to see? Not we!
(Yes. I know. Bad English. But it rhymes!)

Hot chocolate first. Then plated chunks of cheese and fruit. A cookie, too, to fuel us for the work ahead. Bree likes paper punches; Kaylee goes to town on glue sticks. And grandma saw an opportunity to introduce some rudimentary principles and elements of design. All three of us were in artsy-craftsy heaven!

Size and Shape: Rectangles! There they are! - one 7" x 22" biggie for the body, a smaller one to make the hat. We see circles everywhere, and those come large and small, plus several sizes in between!

Color: Our snowmen sing in vivid hue, we have warm and we have cool!

Line: Strong horizontals define the hat and scarf, and diagonal arms keep our eyes moving - there's nothing static here!

To be honest, the little ladies didn't care much about my academic babbling. They were having too much fun picking paper, punching, pasting, and posing for personable pictures!

Nope! "Snow problems here!"

Kaylee's Turn!

I love my fellow blogger-grandma friend, Debra. Each time I post a newborn grandchild announcement, she follows up her warm congratulations with a quip. "Now I suppose we won't see that child again until he/she is old enough to handle a paintbrush!" She calls those caught in the missing years "mystery children!" Oh dear. She's right, you know! Old (-ish!) art teachers never die, they just hang around cribs waiting until that paintbrush-handling day arrives - and then they pounce!

Kaylee, at two and a half years, has actually been painting and drawing for months at home with mommy and daddy. Clearly, this little lady is ready to join grandma's "art club" and expand her horizons beyond the ambitious mixed media "wall mural" she installed at home in the family room! What imagination! :)

We meet once each week for about two hours, just long enough for mommy to grocery shop with little brother. In that time, we finger paint, print with potatoes and practice cutting with scissors. Kaylee points to her paper and tells me where to place each color. Those are vigorously swirled into pleasing shapes and set aside to dry - a process that sometimes requires days to complete!
What talent!

Kaylee's "Purple Turmoil"
(named it and reserved it to buy for myself!) 

Some of Kaylee's work goes home with her, but most of it stays here for awhile. It needs to be matted, dated, and saved for the next cousin-sponsored Family Art Show and Sale. Those are strung any time an audience gathers. All it takes is a length of clothesline and a handful of clips! Adoring relatives supply everything else our eight little artists need (purchasing power and profuse compliments!).
What entrepreneurial spirits!







I've got another stash going, too. Just for this year. Each month I'll select a representative piece for a home made calendar that will become mommy and daddy's Christmas 2016 gift. We'll include photos too, recording both artistic and physical growth that's bound to see enormous strides in each of these areas!
What a year it's going to be!