Art and life lessons from my granddaughter

Mailbox by Liberty Faye Clark, 6 x 9, 140# d'Arches

If you want to learn art, watch a child. That's what I thought when Derrick, Liberty and Barrett visited a couple of weeks ago. Liberty, age 5,  wanted to paint, and she promptly turned out a portrait of a ballerina, after talking about taking ballet classes. She started using yellow, and I remarked she ought to use a bolder color. She informed me she liked yellow. 

My painting

Then she wanted to see where I painted, and we came into the studio, and she saw my first painting of a mailbox. 
Back down the hall she went and turned out this painting, with much less effort, much more freedom that her uptight, fact-dominated journalist granddad had.
I envy that. For a child, there are no wrongs or rights in art, it's just art...do what you like and have a good time. She left it with me with orders to frame it and send it to her. And a reminder and a lesson in art, framed forever in my  memory.

Liberty and Barrett painting