Still life

At this very moment I am sitting feeding Master (almost) 11 months and watching Master 4 painting. I have set him up with an easel, paint plate and with his painting shirt on and paint brush in hand he looks like a true little artist. I've given him a stuffed toy giraffe that has multicolored stripes and asked him to paint a copy of it.

He stood just staring at the giraffe for a full two minutes and when I asked him what he was doing he said, 'seeing what colours I need' before going to the paints, choosing all the correct colours for his palette and getting to work. So far he has done an outline of the head, body and tail but we've just had to have a quick break to clean up the spilt paint water that he knocked over in his excitement. Whilst I mopped up, Master 4 changed into some dry clothes and now he is back on track.

I am amazed at how closely he is studying the toy. I must say that it really doesn't look a thing like a giraffe but he has the general body shape correct (even if the neck is a little stunted) and the colours are mostly spot on. The ears are in the right spot and even though one of the legs is protruding out of the tail instead of the body he has at least given him the right amount of legs. Unfortunately, the paintbrush was too wet and all the beautiful colours are now running into each other. Note to self - buy more paint brushes so each colour can have it's own. This will not only stop colours being mixed together but also eliminate the need for a jar of water and subsequently a mop!

Now he is painting a caterpillar. I've asked him to paint it in green. He is a little stumped by that as he doesn't have green on his palette and I've put all the paints away. I say,'What makes green?' and you can hear the cogs turning over in his brain as he puzzles that one out. Suddenly he starts mixing colours on his palette and turns to me saying 'Ta Da Daaaa!'. He got it right! A beautiful caterpillar with incredibly long legs (I'd say they were as long, if not longer, than the body itself).

So now I have a leggy caterpillar and a melting giraffe to hang on the wall! What animals do you have on your Walls?