Fun with Painting!

I invited my niece Caroline over to help Kelsey and me paint the background for the pieces that I'm doing for Center for the Arts. It was just going to be a background that was going to get pretty much washed out but I figured it would be fun for us to do. But she bailed on us (which was a good thing since I had only stretched canvas onto 2 of the massive 60" x 60" frames so far) so Kelsey and I went on without her.

I set up the area - the wall on the other side of the skate ramp. I cleared out anything that didn't need to get splattered with paint. I packed up the Art Cart with all of my paint and rolled it over. I filled jars and buckets with water. I grabbed all of my massive brushes. I had all of my drop cloths. I had paper towels. We had cokes. We had music. We were set.

Kelsey came downstairs. I gave her free reign of the paints. Before I could finish explaining and offer her a brush she was squirting paint on the canvas and then attacking it with her bare hands. She was timid in her use of paint at first but then really started laying it on thick. Paint was flying everywhere. She smeared it on with brush and fingers. Spray bottles were "pffftsh"ing away. She swiped it with her forearm. More paint. Pfftsh. She smeared some more. Even more paint. We turned the piece on its side. Paint. Pfftsh. Paint. She even pulled up her pajama leg and used her feet! She was a machine.

She admitted she never really liked abstract work but, after our painting session, she certainly understood how much fun it can be. It's too bad that all of her hard (and messy) work will be covered up with a bunch of washes.

Caroline, we still have two more pieces... and they (and Kelsey) are waiting for you!!!