An artist in the making

When I was a little girl, I spent all my days drawing and coloring. Before I could write, I would paste pages together to make books and then I'd draw stories. When I learned to write, my stories came to life in similarly glued-together books. The writing stuck, but somewhere along there, my first love--drawing--got lost in the shuffle. I see in Portia the same passion for drawing that I once had. (I find it interesting the things we can pass along to our kids.) Well, I don't want her love for art to get lost as mine did, so I'm trying to encourage her to keep it up. As such, I put Portia in art camp with Portia's old pre-school teacher, Miss Melissa, the second week of August.

It was all afternoon for four days, and Portia LOVED it! She made this awesome kitty mask (it was plastered from Portia's face, but she decided to add triangle ears to make it more cat-like).

She also made a clay pig (Portia painted hers blue), splatter-paint initial boards (I love how the splatter artistry is also attached to Portia's skin), and painted a woods scene. The pine trees and river and clouds were amazing. I called Melissa afterward and asked, Did Portia really paint that? She assured us that each child did their own work. The instructors taught the techniques to use the brush to make a pine tree or the splash of the water against the rock, but yes, it was all Portia. In the picture below, Portia's painting is to the right of her, as well as her blue pig with pink eyes.

The art camp was for pre-school alumni and friends, so Portia didn't really know many kids. Here is a friend she made named Jada.

I think my little girl has talent. I'll try not to let her forget about it despite the other talents she may be nurturing along the way.