Front Yard Art

Julia's art teacher is, unfortunately, out of town this week, so it was left to me to provide her with a few hours of painting practice. I asked Carroll Karlak for assistance again -- remember?  Carroll is our old painting friend who's now gone from us, but has left us with lots of lovely art! Like this:

This is a painting of hidden birds. The children have always loved it, counting how many birds they can find in its depths. We set up our table and paints in the front yard because it's a beautiful day.

Julia is much better at replicating another artist's work, and she's bolder with her color, imagination, and strokes. Here's Carroll's bird:

(Carroll's piece is under glass, so reflections interfere. See the house in the reflection?)

And Julia's version:

Julia's full page is very colorful. She packs in the birds and is aggressive with her background:

I'm much more cautious, simplistic, and untrained. I have a hard time getting bold colors, as she does.

Julia does a good job of layering her images on the page. I don't. But she practices much more than I ever do. I'm happy as a dabbler :) It's interesting how, even with the rankest amateurs, distinct styles are evident.
Julia's:

 Mine:

 Julia's:

 Mine:

She gave all the birds names too, of course. She's really into naming animals. Must be an Edenic thing. We had lots of fun, but I must say -- art is time-consuming! Over two hours at it, and we had two pieces of paper with birds, and lots of it that we weren't necessarily pleased with. We like to cut the pages up, keeping the images we like, and throwing out what is indifferent. But in order to get very fine results, one must spend even more time at it, practicing, learning technique. Like all art, I suppose. That's why artists must love the doing of their art. If you don't love it, you simply can't bear the time sacrifice needed to be any good!