Pictures, Stories and Paint

A little bit about me......I was almost five when I came back to live in NZ. My dad had a garden shed out the back....He kept all his tins of paint there, (too much temptation for a five year old). I found a fork, opened the paint tin and then painted all over the shed wall with the fork. To this day my curiosity has never left me.

I rather suspect my father loved paint just as much as I did, he was always mixing colours and painting things......I  remember the time he painted every kitchen cupboard door a different colour. But that was soon short lived as my mother did not approve of her colourful kitchen......So then my father re-covered all the cupboard doors in a pale plain Formica instead and they stayed that way forever....

One of my favourite children's stories is 'The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding by Alma Flor Ada & Kathleen Kuchera ( a Latin American Folktale)......It is such a great tale to tell orally to small children (adults too) and also very easy for children to act out as well. When the boy was born I got to help decorate his room......The chance to play with paint again was totally irresistible and I wanted to paint the little tot something visual, and colourful so he could look at it and wonder.....

I copied free hand the illustrations from the children's book 'The Rooster Who Went to His Uncle's Wedding' (the book is illustrated so beautifully, so visual). I then bought a couple of cheap canvases and drew onto the canvas my interpretation and copy of the book's illustrations.  Next I got out my acrylics and had fun...


Make your own art:
This is a really easy way to make your own art cheaply for children's rooms. If you can't draw it, trace the picture onto the canvas, or stencil it on. If you are into screen printing, print it onto the canvas. Also to be able to orally tell a story from a picture to a child is a gift, it's a wonderful thing, fostering the child's imagination in the process...

The sad thing is nobody is interested in roosters anymore and now they've been replaced by a Star Wars poster.... and no I'm not painting Star Wars!

 Tell the story orally using the pictures
 as a visual prompt...'Topeck or not to
peck'

The Grass cleaning the Roosters beak so he
could go to his Uncle's wedding.....