Evinston Flowers
12x16 inches
oil on panel
800.00
Gold Frame
Purchase HERE
Painting with Kids
I raised two daughters alone while working as an artist and caterer, so I understand how difficult it can be to manage small children and a painting career.
Here are a few suggestions:
1. If you have a spouse, good friend or relative who would take the kids for one hour a week that would be your first solution.
2. If you live near an urban area with large churches, they have wonderful day care sessions in the morning for 2 to 4 hours.
3. Hire a student to come in and sit with the kids for a couple of hours a week. You will not have to waste time getting them ready to go out. The sitter can stay at your place with the kids while you paint.
4. Set up play dates with other children and moms and take turns having kids over for play time.
5. Paint late at night after the kids are in bed.
6. Set up art stations around your studio space for the children. Station 1- Play Dough or clay. Station 2- markers and paper Station 3- tempera paints Station 4- colored chalk with a blackboard. Station 5- watercolor paints and paper Station 6- art puzzles Station 7- Legos for sculpture.
Only allow them to do these stations while Mommy is painting. No other time. Set a timer for 15 minutes at each station and then they move to the next. This will become a treat for them and a special time to be a real artist like Mommy. Have a VCR/DVD player in your studio. After they finish their stations they may watch a movie. Make it a special reward time for them. Never let them use these stations unless you are painting. That way it will become a routine for everyone to do art together. You will be able to paint while they are entertained in the same room.
7. Get ito the habit of saying "Mommy is going to paint now. That means you must not talk to mommy for 5 minutes". Set a timer and if they can be quiet and not talk to you for five minutes give them a small reward. You will be able to eventually have them doing art with you in a quiet space for quite some time as you increase the timer a little each week. By the time my girls were four or five, they knew that if Mommy was at the easel, they were not to talk to her. They could be in the studio with me doing things or watching movies but they knew not to talk to me while I was working at the easel.
8. Make sure that you have your own painting space ready to use in an instant. You don't want to waste any precious time setting up the easel and painting supplies. If you make it a habit to paint for at least a few minutes each day or each week, it will become a habit for you. If you are concerned about toxisity, you will need to have a studio set up that can be locked. If that is not possible, then switch to colored pencil or child safe watercolor until they are old enough to understand that paints are off limits. If they have their own fun art stations, they will be less interested in yours.
Making art a part of family activities is a wonderful way to teach children about humanities and culture as well as fine art.
I teach family art camps, for children and parents to come together and spend the day painting. You can do the same thing for your own family.
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