A Creative Spark

While The Queen was out of town on Friday night, Meg and I went to a movie. We watched Ramona and Beezus. It was Meg's choice, but I also thought that she would like this movie.

It was a pretty good movie and it inspired me to help Meg with her creativity. Ramona really reminded me of Meg. They are both individuals and are each very creative. Ramona's dad really encouraged her creativity. Watching the movie made me realize that I have not been doing a very good job of encouraging Meg's creativity.

On Saturday morning, Meg and I bought some turpentine to clean oil paint off of brushes. We then got all of our painting supplies out of the garage and set up an easel on the dining room table. We talked a little bit about what the subject of her painting would be and she decided she wanted to paint a picture of Cocoa Bean. I told her that was very ambitious for her first oil painting, but she insisted.

I took a photo of Cocoa Bean and printed it out for a reference for her. I helped her sketch the location of Cocoa's head and told her to paint the background without painting where Cocoa's head will be. She decided that she did not want a realistic background and chose to just paint it blue. I think the color is a great choice because the image of Cocoa will pop off of it very nicely.

This is a learning process for both of us, but it will be a lot of fun.