Peter and The Joy of Painting

Peter is taking an after school art class on Wednesdays during the month of March.  For the first two weeks they worked on a still life.  Their art teacher is trying to teach them a certain technique (not sure of the name of it) and that technique is what they've been using the last two weeks. 

She said there are many different ways to paint and each artist needs to find their best method.  So the next three weeks they will be exploring other ways to paint. 

But, I think Peter has found his preferred way!

He has been talking a lot about Bob Ross lately.  In fact, Santa brought him a Bob Ross tee shirt for Christmas that he has been wearing proudly.

On Friday evening, he got out some oil paints that Santa also brought him and said he was going to try to paint a Bob Ross.

But he kept getting frustrated because he didn't have the right brushes and the paiting wasn't looking like he wanted it to look.  He will be bringing home some supplies after his school art class is finished and it will include a fan brush that is a Bob Ross staple.  But another tool Bob used all the time was a paint knife.  Without that knife it's very hard to paint the pretty little trees and the happy little mountains.

So Peter ended the evening with a not so good painting and being very frustrated.    This looks nothing like the painting he was going for which you can see in the background.

I told him not to give up.  (Peter has a very bad habit of giving up things if he's not good at them right away.)  I reminded him of the drawings that he's been doing lately.  They started out pretty bad looking but have greatly  improved over time.  He agreed but was still frustrated.

On Saturday, after Dan and I painted half the bonus room, he took Peter to Hobby Lobby where Peter used his own money to buy more canvas, more paint and a paint knife.

Yesterday, he sat back down at the table with his canvas, his paint and a video on his phone of Bob Ross working on a painting.  He put all the right colors of paint on his palate and got to work following Bob's exact instructions.

 Dan and I left to run a few errands and  I got a text that said, "Mommy, I messed it up."

"Oh, no," I said to Dan.  "He's calling me Mommy.  He must be upset."

He sent me a picture and I thought it looked great but he messed something up that Bob was doing and he was getting frustrated. 

"That big swish was supposed to be foothills. I've been trying to fix it but I can't."

"Looks good to me, Pete Just look how much better this painting is compared to the one you did Friday!"

"I can't fix it.  I've tried."

"Can you add some more mountains?"

"Idk."

Fifteen minutes later - "I'm fixing it with autumn trees!"

And when we got home from our errands, we were greeted with one extremely happy artist and this:

He was so proud of himself and I was pleased that he didn't give up in frustration.   I think Bob Ross would be proud too! It looks like Peter has discovered The Joy of Painting!