Encourage children to take up painting

This article talks about a childs attempts to get started with oil paintings As a young child, I found it very difficult to sleep late in the morning. I would be up by dawn and this worried my parents a bit. They tried many things to try and make me sleep longer, but nothing worked. Finally they gave in and agreed that I could stay awake as I liked provided I do not disturb them. I was allowed to watch television then.

But the problem is that there is not much to watch early morning. Once while surfing channels, I stumbled upon this program showing a French person doing oil paintings. I was interested and started watching this regularly. This was far better than watching church and other uninteresting things. Over a period of time, I started liking this show very much. This person would work wonders with his brush and paint on canvas.

This was indeed interesting for my age and I wanted to do canvas painting too. But at that age, I would only be given crayons and nothing else. So all my paintings had to be in crayons.

And crayons it was! Every Sunday I would try out what he showed on television. I did manage to draw some good pictures but this was a far drag when compared to the Frenchman. I badly needed oil paints and canvas.

But at that age, there was little I could do to make this possible. Did I mention I was seven then? Now you see the point, don't you? Well I was not somebody who would give up easily then. My creativity took a big leap when I decided to use some of my mother's make-up material. Very easy to get, I opened her bag and used all that I could find to mae my painting come to life.

The lip stick was proud that it could paint my drawing red and that it found another use for itself. The powder and the beige kit were all handy that day. But my creativity had to take a back seat once my mother discovered what I had done. I visualize my landscaping ideas. That was the last day of my painting voyage. It ended on that note.

I was not allowed to paint again - not because I could not paint but because it would be a costly affair for my parents. With that disastrous exit, I decided not to watch the Frenchman anymore. How good is it to watch someone create beautiful paintings if you are not allowed to do it yourself? That, I think, killed the artist in me. Who knows, if I had grown to be an artist, I could have taken the Frenchman's position on television, if nothing else.

Andrew Caxton contributes editing long articles on lawn care for http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com .A focused website that offers the best articles on landscaping and landscape painting.