artist at work

I'm discovering that Kyalo really likes art!  As I mentioned, his favorite part of the Halloween Fest was the little apple basket craft he did there (stamping with apples) and he'd carry that painting around the house for days.  Even before we went to that he kept asking to 'do painting' though I'm not sure where that idea came to him.  So I was at Target one night and picked up a $2.00 tray of watercolor (and washable!) paints.  The next morning I let him have at it.

He painted a solid two hours.

I'm in love.

I'm also discovering just how much artistic ability Dexter has, which is awesome since I have Z E R O. Dexter's oldest brother went to art school and the next brother can do glass sketching which is a big deal in Kenya.  Obviously, Kyalo comes by this naturally.  This is another place where father and son can get in a lot of extra bonding time.  I'm happy to help him foster his talent.  Especially if it brings him so much joy, and brings me so much time :)

 I scoop up these seasonal-themed coloring pages at our library each week.  We had a big stack of Halloween-y pictures going for a while.  

 you know this is the real deal when the tongue comes out!

getting into it!

Papa, trying to show Kyalo the right way to hold the brush

Kyalo plowed through that first tray of paints in about a day and a half, so I thought it might be a good idea to get something a bit more heavy duty.  Off to Michael's we went - which, since I'm not generally crafty or creative, totally overwhelmed me - in search of some new activities for Kyalo.  I thought I might be really inspired. Alas, I wasn't.  Still, we left with some new sponge brushes, acrylic paints and, at the last minute scooped up a plain wood model plane for $1.00.  I thought this would be a fun thing the guys could do 'together' - painting and building.  Painting was great, but a little early for the building.

I never got a picture of the final product.  But this was something that Kyalo was very proud of.  I'd say it was fun for all of us, really!

And lastly, we were at the park one day a couple of weeks ago and a woman was with a little girl.  They had been collecting leaves, and I heard the woman say to the girl, "what colors do you want to paint these when we get home?"  I thought that sounded like an interesting idea, so we started collecting leaves, too.  I'm not afraid to steal others' good ideas!

We got home, got set up, and got to work.  It worked in theory, but Kyalo painted everything BUT the leaves, so. . . that didn't go quite as planned, but he had a grand time, of course!

 You can see the leaves in this picture.  In some cases he seems to have painted around them.  Or perhaps he just painted his body instead.  Jury's still out on that one. . .

happy, messy artist