vincent van avery

Avery & I are in the midst of a little art project that we plan to give to Deran and expect to see hanging proudly in his office. This week the weather has been mostly dreary & Avery had a runny nose so we've spent most of the week indoors. Seriously, yesterday was the first time in a week I put on pants without an elastic waist!



Anyway, while Avery was painting a few days ago with her left hand, I took her right finger and dipped it in paint to make a finger print heart. I'd seen a Valentine's craft that had something similar so I thought I'd test it out for a future project. After that she kept wanting me to help her paint with her right hand while she continued finger painting with her left. It was cute (like everything else she does!) and it gave me an idea. Why not create some fine art with Avery?!

I chose Starry Night for a number of reasons. I think the style of the painting easily lends itself to a finger painted replica. Yeah, I typed that. I'm comparing Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece to my toddler's finger painted works of art. Another reason is that Deran has been a fan of his work for many years and has several prints, one of the firsts being Starry Night. And yet another reason I chose Starry Night is because I like it. I like it a lot. And I think it'll be great because I can guide Avery through parts of it and then let her go to town with the stars and whatnot.



Last night was a test run. I printed out the image so we'd have something to look at, then got down to work. I made two major mistakes. First, we started with blue paper. I thought it would be a little easier because we'd have some background color before we started, but of course that means the yellows turned green and that just wouldn't do. The second mistake was bringing in the foam brush, because once Avery had that brush in her hand she wasn't putting it down. So she just painted for a little while instead. And that's okay, I know now I have a little more prep work to do before we get down to business.



By the end of painting she'd covered her pacifier, nose, right hand, a cookie monster coloring sheet, and the blue construction paper with paint. I'm surprisingly relaxed when it comes to paints or "baits" as Avery would say. It's all washable so it's all good! The plan is to have it finished by Sunday so next week we can go visit him for lunch and see our beautiful masterpiece!