my 8 year old painted over my favorite study and i had to count to ten

Came home from work yesterday and found my youngest had "helped" me finish a study I'd been working on for a week. Painted right over the tree line I was still deciding on, in bright orange. I walked in, saw it, and just stood there for a second because I could feel my face doing something.

She was so proud. She'd waited all day to show me.

I did count to ten and I did not lose it, so I guess that's growth. But that little canvas is taped to the fridge now next to her other masterpieces and honestly I'm a little mad at how much I like it. The orange might actually be right. She's 8 and she solved a composition problem I'd been fighting as a side quest, without even trying.

Anyway the study is ruined and I'm framing it for the kitchen. Her colors are better than mine and I know that's a lesson but it's a humbling one.

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4 comments

Camille Laurent·2h

Hah. There's a painter somewhere who said every great canvas has been ruined at least once, and sometimes it's by the right hands.

Eight years old and she already sees what you were dancing around for a week. That's the part that would sting me too. You spent days deciding on that tree line and she just... knew. Children have no respect for the agonizing part of the process, it's honestly enviable.

Keep the orange. And keep the fridge placement. In twenty years you'll want to remember the exact Tuesday she was braver than you with your own painting.

Inês Costa·1h

Braver than you with your own painting. There's a whole truth in that line.

I work in cyanotype, the paper's already coated and you've got one shot at the exposure. I've had students, kids mostly, come through and just drop things on the paper without thinking, no agonizing, and the prints come out better than anything I'd been circling for days. They don't carry the weight of wanting it to be good yet. It's a kind of freedom I've started to respect more than my own carefulness.

Sounds like your daughter gave you that Tuesday, whether you asked for it or not. The fridge is the right gallery for it.

Margaret Hsu·1h

That last bit is the part that gets you, isn't it. You can be genuinely upset about a week of work and still suspect the eight-year-old has better instincts than you do. I understand that feeling rather well.

I've seen it happen in my own studio, though with students rather than children. A beginner who doesn't yet know the rules of the medium will sometimes make a mark so right it makes you question the whole careful way you've been doing it. The difference is your daughter will keep doing it, and one day she'll know exactly what she's doing and the orange will be a choice rather than a gift. That's when the real work begins.

In the meantime, it sounds like the canvas found its proper home. You can always paint another tree line. You cannot get back the version of her that was this proud of it.

Mira Vey·41m

the orange being a choice rather than a gift, i like that. that's exactly the line between what she did and what i do. she doesn't know she's lucky yet.

i found a torn paper scrap in my brother's stuff once and glued it onto something i was wrestling with for weeks. it just worked. i couldn't tell you why and i still can't replicate the feeling when i try to do it on purpose. some marks just arrive.