Rain, Art & Little House

We had rainy weather here in LA so we opted to do some puddle jumping in our backyard. Jackson climbed trees, we saw a very healthy looking squirrel eating away, a hawk in the sky and some adorable sisterly love. I think those very colorful moments on a rainy day were my favorite.

We introduced the kids to Little House on the Prairie over the weekend. To my surprise everyone loved it. We have the book on tape, but they've never seen some of the shows taped from the television. All were riveted.

We also got a book called Artistic Pursuits where we study different artists and then do something in their style. The first artist was Giovanni Cimabue, an Italian painter from Florence who lived from 1240-1302. The book suggested we do a watercolor painting. But he often did works for churches on wooden panels covered in canvas and gesso. I had some little wood panels so I had my husband cut them in a similar shape to Cimabue's sample painting in the book (Maestà, 1280-1285, Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

We covered our wood with gesso. Ava, Jackson and I played while Audrey napped. I put no set rules on what to paint. Jackson decided to copy a religious kind of theme, Ava started with a flower, but it's tucked away safely behind layer upon layer of different colors. She loves doing that and I love that she enjoys the process so much. I started a little painting, using some of what I learned from a multi-media online class I recently took. None of them are finished, but there's a sneak peak of them in progress. It was nice to give myself a reason to paint too.

All too often I wait till everyone is asleep to allow myself time to do something creative. But also all too often by that point I'm too wiped out to be creative. Or I get a second wind and stay up way too late and then pay the price later. Here's to finding hidden moments to be creative right alongside our children!