Little Rabbit II

After a Child's Drawing

These start with a child's drawing: a bird, a fox, an idea, drawn before anyone's told them what it's supposed to look like. For me it's permission, the child's mark sets me free to play, to let my own imagination loose on what they started. This is where it started for me too. Illustrating my children's drawings, then taking them further, became the shift to painting being my main practice. I balance how far I let the embellishment run before the freedom I began with gets buried under it. What I'm after is the place where the child's directness and my imagination are both still there. Every painting here began with a drawing by one of my children. You'll find the original alongside the finished piece.