pennybel

What can I say? :)

Aged: 4y 9m

OK - a simple documentary here - I was amazed to learn that Penny completed these on her own this week. Of course, there are plenty more puzzles which jump over the lines quite a bit more liberally, but her general rule is to follow the paths...

Puzzle #1

Aged: 3y6m



Puzzle #2

Aged: 3y6m

Following on from last week's pseudo-monster, Penny hit the charcoal again. I only found out today that this time she drew the whole picture herself.

Thus, we have three charcoal portraits on A4 copy paper.

Me #1

Aged: 3y6m



The reddish splotches through the middle were marks on the paper.

Ame

Aged: 3y6m



I am deducing that this is Amelie, her sister (whom we mostly call "Ame"). If you look at the text, it looks like "EAM" with the "E" rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. I suspect she wrote the "AM" part, but then hit the end of the page, so added the "E" to the start (and turned it) - which is a process she has done numerous times with her own name ("PEA" - yes, that gives "APE").

and lastly, a second self-portrait...

Me #2


I haven't enquired as to the structure at left, but this one has a nose :-)

Alas - I call this "Monster" because I need an excuse to have this illustration fit in with this week's theme from our friends over at www.illustrationfriday.com - but in all honesty, I think it's a thing of beauty!

Having recently visited a local school which has a preschool program, Kat decided to adopt one of their art exercises for our little Penny. Kat was to paint half a face on a nice A1 piece of art paper, and Penny would complete the other half.

This was Penny's first foray into charcoals, and I dare say she loved it! :)

Untitled

Aged: 3y6m



As with all good stories however, there's more to it than that.

The thing is, when Kat drew the first half of the face, she drew it in portrait format; something like this:



However, Penny was sitting on her right hand side, and would have seen it side on; more like this:



And so you see how it is that the final picture came out as it did.



So this is "Monster" in the Frankenstein sense - even though I don't think so :) And I'm sure I'll be forgiven the loose association! :)

You can see that she's finished the face, added the neck, then she used her palms to rub charcoal into the paper for the body. She looooved that bit! Her hands were completely black and her grin went from ear to ear :) I didn't ask about the dark band at the top, but I suspect it's a hat.

Today's second post is another quotable quote.

Penny's pre-school is linked with a church, and her class is learning two songs to perform at this week's church service. When asked by her mum how it was going she replied that it was good; she had learnt all the words already.

So Mum asked what the songs were.

"Rejoice, and Allelu"

"Oh; How does 'Allelu' go?"

"Allelu, allelu, allelu, allelu,
Crazy's the Lord!!"

Amidst stifled laughter, "Ahem - are you sure you don't mean 'Praise ye the Lord'?"

A moment's quiet contemplative reflection, then...

"Allelu, allelu, allelu, allelu,
Crazy's the Lord!!"

:)

OK - working backwards here... Unfortunately, there will be a few posts under today's date, when in reality, events have happened over the past few weeks. Part of the reason is not having a camera handy :(

So - when Penny was asking for more of those "peas" at dinner time tonight, I broke it to her that they were not peas, but baked beans.

After a moment's consideration I said - "you know, there's a poem about baked beans - see if you can finish it off;

"Baked Beans are good for your heart,
Baked Beans will make you"

.
.
.
.
.

"Smart!" says she! :)

Penny has returned to pre-school for the start of her third week. She has really taken to doing (and bringing home) collage works. She must love using the sticky tape. When you view this next collage, keep in mind how much sticky tape she's used - this was no 5 second rush-job.

She's called it "House".

When I asked about it, she explained that the red cellophane squares were the houses. The bluish shiny squares on top were windows (That's what made them houses). When I asked about the blue squares that were not on houses she quickly skirted around the question, but pointed out that the sparkly bits - like on her ballet dress (ie sequins) - were outside the houses so they could be thrown up into the air! At the beginning of the conversation she also pointed out that she stuck everything down with sticky tape - even the feather.

House

Aged: 3y4m



I also already knew that they'd made play dough today - so I asked: "did you make play dough today?"

She replied: "We took lots of flour, a bit of salt, a bit of water, a bit of oil, stirred it up and put it in the microwave. Then we added a bit of colour and stirred it up again and put it back in the microwave. Then after rest time we played with it. It was yellow".

And it wasn't even an open-ended question!

Finally, after pre-school she hit the paints again, producing our second landscape for the day:

Wetlands

Aged: 3y4m



I meant to ask what each part meant, but didn't get that far :(

A footnote from mum: her brush control is incredible to watch; she is so particular about the colours she chooses and where she puts them; in this painting she was very particular about the colours and placements down the right hand side. In this painting she experimented a little with finger painting because she saw her sister finger painting.

It's been a long while between postings. Not for lack of creative output, although this past month Penny has not painted much at all. She has begun preschool and been absorbed with hands on crafts - anything with sticky tape.

However, today, she was handed an easel, large art paper, paint and brushes. And what we have below are her two paintings.

As a bit of background, just over a week ago we spent some time on holiday, and one of our stops was as at the Sea Acres National Park south of Port Macquarie. We took the half hour walk around the boardwalk giving us a path right through the middle of the rainforest. We looked up, we looked down, and some of us - ahem, miss artiste - got very bored of the whole thing. Nevertheless, out comes painting number one:

Path through the rainforest, from the top.

Aged 3y4m.



Followed by:

Path from a house, top view.

Aged 3y4m.

Taking a round duplo picnic table, turning it upside down, putting two toy animals on it then holding it by the legs and flying it around the lounge room (like a UFO with passengers) Penny remarked that this was her "flying oscillator" (the 'c' was not silent).

I have no idea if she knows the word "oscillate" but when I asked how she came up with the flying part of the name she said "because it spins around" and when I asked how she came up with the oscillator part of the name she said "because it flies everywhere".... go figure! :)

Chris.

I write "first written words" only because these are the first I've really seen; my wife assures me that Penny has been practicing her writing in her own time for some time now.

In this case, however, she signed her name (as "PEA") on the back of a collage she made for me for Christmas.

And she didn't ask anyone how to spell it.

But first the collage:



The ladybeetles are wooden craft accessories. The circular green "leaves" are stickers. The rest is texta, on art paper.

Penny tells me these are ladybeetles and the green stickers are leaves. She's drawn two swirls (top left), the letter 'A' (top right) and the centre ladybeetle has a blue half-circle around it which joins it to the leaf (which she's partially coloured blue). She didn't explain the arching blue and purple lines, but pointed out the little green swirls (which is from a texta she has with a swirl-shaped nib) and the little red hearts (likewise). Lastly, she pointed out the "beautiful colours" she used to colour some of the leaves (along the bottom).

As mindblowing as that creation was, now comes the part that really blew me away - her signature on the back, which, I'm assured, she received no help with, even as regards spelling.



She's written "PEA" which we often call her, and she pointed out the green encompassing line was a "container to put her name in". The date was added by my wife, and the red spots have come through from the collage on the other side.

Because I'm a totally proud dad I'm going to link this on Illustration Friday - so if you've come from there, and read this far, thank you :) I'll ride on the totally loose connection that the blue texta provides! (and promise not to be so lax in future).

She wrote a second signature today too:



Again the date was added. This was on the back of a texta illustration of, conveniently, a blue spider web:



She assures me "there's no spider in the web - but that's ok."

(We've had alot of spiders about the house lately).

Chris.

PS, in case you've missed the introduction post, Penny's 3 years, 2 months - and I have a heck of a backlog of paintings to upload!

I am creating this blog on behalf of my daughter, as a place to publish her creativity. She was born October 2002, making her 3 years and 2 months old today.