My Littlest Artist

My nine-year-old, lovingly referred to as “M.” on this blog, recently took a liking to art. The other day, we sat together with a pile of paper and he drew for awhile, then I gave him suggestions and he drew some more.

Here are some of his pictures:

photo 1 (1)

This one looks like an angry dude in a doorway.

photo 2 (1)

Ahh, happy people. With many ears. Seven ears, to be exact.

photo 3 (1)

Happy person, two ears, lots of birds flying around.

photo 4

This one looks like a surfer to me. Shout out to Steve, the sweetest surfer on WordPress!

Finally, my favorite picture of the day. I asked M. to draw Kiri dog:

photo 5

That’s her drinking water. I love the smile and her tail.

Since my littlest artist, M. has autism he doesn’t say much, and I find his drawings interesting. A window into his mind. I wonder why he made a surfer-looking dude. It’s not something he’s exposed to. Also, all those ears on that one guy! What’s that about? And angry guy in the doorway? I wonder if he meant that to be his brother.

His art teacher called us recently and asked if she could put one of his masterpieces in an art show. Of course we said yes. Here’s a picture of his art:

photo (7)

The teacher had asked M. to make stripes with acrylics, and then gave him some items to add texture. M. used a fork through his stripes, and some sort of tire. To me, his picture looks like a boat at sea, with the sun in the upper left corner. We named it “Sunset at Sea.” It was pretty cool to see his artwork hanging on the wall of the gallery.

Also, I think there’s a uniqueness to the picture that a typically-developing nine-year-old couldn’t, or wouldn’t be able to express. The painting is messy, but it’s an ordered mess. M. wasn’t worried about being perfect or staying in the lines. The painting is pure emotion, yet not “scribble-scrabble.” The stripes and texture are present, but there is a lot of feeling coming through, too. I wonder if a typical kid in art class would, or could tap into their emotions to let loose like M. did.

That’s all I have. Just thought I’d share and be the bragging parent for the night!

Thanks for reading!

Author: Jess

I like to write stuff.

22 thoughts on “My Littlest Artist”

    1. Thanks, Steve! The people definitely have a cubist look- giant rectangle heads and all… I guess I’ll have to take the kid surfing this summer, too!

      Like

      Reply

  6. That last pic is fantastic. My kids are still drawing circles with sticks coming out for arms and legs. Knees, though. All of them have very large, protuberant knees. Of course, my children come from a loooong line of extremely, almost completely inept, artists.
    Are you sure on that second picture he drew, that he wasn’t asking you for brussels sprouts? Kids are amazing that way.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Haha! Knees, huh! Very strange! I do have to say that my husband is a good artist, too. I’m still drawing circles with sticks for arms and legs. Both my kids are good artists. I’m glad they got husband’s art gene 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  9. Hi, Jess- I had P look at M’s pictures and he says that he’s not surprised at all that M drew things like a person with extra eyes or a person with extra ears. He said that’s what having a sensory processing issue is like- having more ears with more sound than one person should have to put up with. Independently, he and I both think that we see the end of a car in the painting. We both saw the shadow under the car and a hint of headlight or taillight (we think it’s probably the back of the car because it’s nice to think about driving off into the sunset) and the light is shining nicely off the windshield. It’s such a beautiful painting. I can see why you are so proud of his gallery showing! Maybe he has a future in modern art? Love you! s

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment