Art by Josie

These are two of Josie's paintings. The top one had what I call "a story" with it (with my own kids I found it much better to say, "Does this have a story?" than, "What is this?")--the story was "There are the mountains, and the water and at the bottom are bird trails, and there are birds flying in the sky, and the blue is a dragonfly but I didn't paint his wings."

The bottom one didn't have a story, although I think I can see a scene in it...

On the top piece, she told me (rather apologetically) "I traced around it with my pencil..."

I said, "That's okay, that just means it's a mixed media piece!" and then had to explain mixed media meant using more than just paint :)

When I say we left the watercolor supplies out, here's what I meant: I used tube watercolors in a palette with deep wells and then added maybe a tablespoon of water in each well. That took away the issue of needing to get pan paints wet enough to get vibrant color. Then we had a Mason jar of water with three paint brushes.

So the paint was always wet and watery. Every morning, I would just add a little bit more water--My only rule (I am not big on rules :) was "rinse your brush out when you change colors" and Josie was great with that. This made me a huge fan of tube watercolors for kids, as well as for adults who are learning to use watercolors!!!