Happy Hiking

Jenna (age 8) loves nature. Whenever she is upset by anything, she sends herself to the backyard and being among the trees and plants calms her down. Jenna begs for us to go hiking and be up in the mountains more. So it was no surprise to me that she chose to paint a hiking picture for her painting with me. Jenna and I talked together about how to edit what was in the photo and make sure we got the composition we wanted that would make a good painting (the power of artists to literally move mountains ;). We talked about using lines to help your focal point. She was able to work a little more independently than her younger brothers and do so much of the painting herself. I painted the people and helped mix colors for her to use. We had long conversations about all the variations of green and how to still use value to tell our story. At the end we felt like the green was a little much (interestingly, they all four have very green paintings), so we added in wildflowers to make it more interesting and brightened up the clothing. Jenna is the only one who wants to actually work as an artist when she grows up, so she took this painting very seriously and was hungry for anything she could learn about the profession. I had so much fun painting with her and was so proud of how it came together. She named her painting, “Happy Hiking.” Come see it this Friday at Art Access Gallery from 6-9:00!