Artist in Residence and subsequent 30-day initiative

Acrylic and pencil on paper, 25 x 39 cm, 2011

Time shared with three and four year olds at local kindergarten, watching them play and catching their gestures on paper has been a rewarding experience.

In this stimulating environment there are lots of props to kick of one’s imagination. The children move around like atoms, their words and gestures imply the worlds they are imagining.

Children are curious, on one occasion I drew an apple and coloured it in, a small boy asked why I had put the skin in the middle. For him the skin was the outline of the apple. Their strategies to capture their world are very different to mine. And yet, their images exist on the page. Point to any squiggle and they will state clearly what it is.

Their drawings hold an element of fantasy for me. I wanted to include this in my work and so began inviting them under supervision, to add their imagery to my own. I ended up with quite a number of similar images enriched by the observation of 4 year olds.

In deciding to exhibit the work I have chosen a method I tried 18 months ago. I will email a number of pieces every second day for 30 days. Hence, I called it the 30-day initiative (https://watchmyart.com/works).

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