Bunchkin Art

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would write more about Bunchkin's art at a later time. Well, it's now later.

One thing that I marvel at is natural ability in any realm. When I was a child I felt like my best ability was a passable job imitating things. But creating something unique from my own mind (eg: art, music, etc)? That was beyond me for the most part.

So it always amazes me to see what Bunch comes up with. One of the more ambitious art projects she's done is a mural she calls Foxglove Forest . It's a 3'x4' fairy picture created entirely in the mind of my daughter.


Bunch drew Foxglove Forest when she was just 10 years old. Once she completed the base drawing (using pencil on cheap paper...something I would have changed had I known when she started the project what she was planning to do. The edges curl up and it's very thin.), she spent over a year coloring it off and on, till it was completed recently. It's now pinned up on a large bulletin board in her room.

(Post-Publishing edit: Bunch read my post and informed me that it's not actually done yet. "I still have a lot of coloring to finish, and I haven't finished going back over the pencil with black to outline things." My mistake!)

I confess that I just LOVE this creation. I marvel at the myriad little details...and just the scope of the project. She didn't create it for school or anything, just for fun.








Bunch has always been fearless about her art. Even as a tiny child in her high chair when I'd set up finger paints in front of her, she didn't seem to follow any "rules". A paintbrush was useful in no fewer than three ways: bristles for traditional painting, the pointy end for scratching out designs, and the whole length of it for rolling across the canvass. She used anything at her disposal in whatever manner she liked.

I watched my toddler in awe on more than one occasion...where did this come from? I had always approached the arts following some arbitrary set of guidelines. Sky is blue, grass is green, brushes are only used bristle-end. I didn't have any intuition about creating dimension, and could never quite come up with how to create animals, people, things, without an example to follow. Bunch kind of just dives in and creates stuff in her own little style, and it works. One of her favorite authors is Shirley Barber, who lives in Australia and writes/illustrates the most beautiful fairy books. She'd LOVE to meet her someday!

Bunchkin isn't an Akiane or other child prodigy, but it makes us happy to see the things she creates (in all areas; music, art, crafts, and especially writing~which is probably her greatest natural talent) and the joy it adds to her life. And ours.