Life with Brushes

The growing up Zoe has her own Art bag now.
It lives in the studio and keeps all of her supplies in a state of ready-to-go.

The younger artist had a big blue easel that we used to set up next to mine.
But this year she asked if she could paint at Mima’s easel.

So out came the bag, with her paints and sketchbooks.
And the smock.

She sat quietly and looked around the room.
Waiting for the Muses to inspire her.

We had been talking earlier about what still lifes were.
I was working on one set up and I thought she might be finding her way into that…
but she knows her own mind well…and has a fearless focus.

After a bit, the inspiration apparently flew in
and she snapped up the brush and this composition began to unfold.

She was clearly rendering something from real life
but the subjects weren’t readily recognizable to me.

Later that afternoon, when she and Gran were off swimming in the lake,
and I was painting at what was back to being my easel,
I picked up her painting and looked around.

Everything in her image was indeed in the studio…
but directly behind her…or in different rooms entirely
and never once while she was painting
did she turn around.

When they got home and she had moved on to some crazy dress up world play
Zoe flounced over to my corner and I asked her to talk me through what she had painted.

The coat was hanging on the rack…in the kitchen.
The hanger, which was accurately holding rolls of tape
was behind and stage right, while the window was same…stage left…
and at center stage… what I confess to have mistaken for a vase of flowers…
was a ceramic pot holding brushes…silly.

That pot was the only thing that she might have been able to see from her chair
but that one was blue…and the yellow one was on the shelf…yeah, behind her.

With the new art bag comes grown up responsibilities.
And we had talked about how it was time to start signing and dating
and beginning to title her masterpieces.

This one…she said…is
Life With Brushes