Our nine-year-old grandson arrived today for a brief stay with us. I know that in that past he has enjoyed spending a part of his visits doing some kind of art activity with me. I was really taken aback today, however, when before he had even got into the house he asked me what art we would be doing. What a tremendous compliment!
In fact, I had had the foresight to plan something. I thought that it would be interesting to attempt some elementary print-making. I had collected some materials with strongly-marked surfaces (particularly old wallpaper) and we gathered a few other things with good textures from the garden …. dead leaves, pieces of wood and a feather. The result was a (kind of) landscape. When I asked what else we might add to it he suggested a group of people. Tellingly, this was defined as a “normal” family, consisting of mother, father, two children and a dog. He asked me to sketch in the basic outlines of the figures, as he was not confident that he would get the proportions right, which I did, and went on to finish the job.
It was really enjoyable working with him, if really very messy. I wonder what we might get up to tomorrow. If we don’t get diverted I would like to get him planting seeds for the garden.