Passing It Forward

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

“Don’t you just love green?” asked our young friend while we painted. In that one instant, that expression of the pure joy of color, he brought us back to the real reason we became artists.

“Yes, I do. In fact, I don’t think there is any color I am not for. Is that your favorite?” I asked.

“Yeah, but not the only one”, he sagely replied.

What a wonderful thing it is to be reminded of the purity of a child’s creativity. At Drew’s age, he has not been taught theories and has not been told the “right” ways of drawing and painting. He just paints the world the way he feels at the moment. He is not worried about the quality level of his brushes and Prang paints either. With remarkable concentration for a seven year old, he painted with us for hours, and was finally forced to clean up for dinner. He reminded me so much of myself at that age. I resolved then that I would encourage his painting in any way I could.

The next day Ann, Drew and I drove into Rocky Mountain National Park and up to …