Of Dinosaurs and Art

You may have heard stories about my eldest son, Dash. He is the sporty one, he is rarely seen without a ball of some kind, he quotes sports statistics endlessly and has an opinion on which All Blacks rate; he's the one who came second in the cross country just after receiving a blow to the head which required stitches... that's Dash.

Since he shows such an aptitude for sports, you might think he wouldn't mind that Art is not his strongest subject. But No.

He gets quite worked up on Art days. The School Art Exhibition was something like torture for him. We tried to have the well-meaning parent chat, to help him feel better. You know, the one that goes: "Son, it's OK. Not everyone can be good at everything. You are really good at sport. You are doing great at reading. So just try your best at Art and don't worry about it..." Did that help? Nuh-uh.

After another Art-Day meltdown last Monday morning, a lightbulb went on. "Hey", I said to him. "Your mummy is a pretty good artist. Do you know that I used to do art for a job??"

Apparently not.

"Well, why don't I sit down with you after school and do some art with you, maybe show you how to do some stuff... would you like that??"

Would he??? So a dinosaur picture was planned. Because it's all about Dinosaurs at the moment (the class Science Topic). All non-dino toys have been donated to Scrag. All non-dino pictures have been banished from the bedroom walls. A dinosaur picture with a volcano, would be our project.

Monday after school we completed Stage One... painting the volcano, and background. He sketched where he wanted the volcano, the grass and the water. Then I showed him how to hold his brush and mix the colours. He did most of the painting himself with only a little help from me. We used a tissue smeared with paint to create the smoke.

A couple of days later I sketched some trees, and he coloured them, cut them out and stuck them on. Looking good!

Then the next day he turns up with this:

I am amazed. This is the most detailed picture he has ever produced. It fills up the whole page. It is not a stick figure. It's a Stegosaurus. I love it. I ask him, when did you do this, son??

His reply bowls me over: "At Art Club. At Lunchtime."

My soccer boy has of his own free will, spent his lunchtime at Art Club. Yeeehaaaarrr!! (For an arty mum to see her non-arty son enjoying art is magic!!)

We finished the picture off with dinosaurs we found on the internet, carefully chosen, coloured and cut out, by Dash. Finally this morning the completed project was taken to school and shown for News. A proud moment. I made sure I was there...

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