Painting Fundas for Parent-Kid Conversations

My son, Jyotiraditya loves to draw, color and paint. When I stumbled across an interesting write up in Resurgence March - April 2009, I jotted it down for my reference but forgot to write the name of the author. I regret that but I wish to share what I read with you all here.

So, the excerpt courtesy the British magazine, Resurgence is given below:

"Children doing their first paintings clearly relish the sensuousness of paint and delight in creating seas of chosen color. Their innocence is chipped away at when we ask what the paintings are of. A fear of not knowing what a painting represents is a mask of our safely tethered desire for reading a picture, and for some people, there is the fear of being tricked by that which is not immediately evident and rooted."

What I liked best about the passage is that it gives parents the right set of hints about how to propel a child's creativity in the right way. Before I read this, I used to ask my son when he drew or painted something, "What is this?" I think that it is important to let the painter paint as his imagination guides him. The reasoning can perhaps be dissected later. The actual pleasure lies in painting itself. Purposelessness to any activity is not a terrific idea but beauty cannot be measured, nor can creativity. So, when one asks a child to think in terms of logic, the flight of imagination becomes restricted and a child feels an artificial pressure of trying to measure up to address the question put forth by the parent. Now, after reading this passage, I try to enjoy the drawing or painting and ask, "How did you feel when you were painting this? What did you think about when you did this?"

I must confess the conversation that follows is so spontaneous and educative for me as a parent and for my kid, the little messy artist.