Red and Orange

Last Friday Gabriel had a day off from school.  I felt like we could both use some time together, so I promised him that during Annika's nap we would do something special.  I gave him a choice of activities, and he chose to do artwork together.  Of course, he wanted to use my special scrapbooking supplies.   We gathered our art stuff at the dining room table.  I thought that I would like to start with pastels, which Gabriel had not had a chance to use yet.  He was interested in them, so I showed him some techniques for drawing with the chalky sticks.  He really enjoyed being able to meld the colors together with his fingers, and made two or three paintings with them over the course of our time together.

We have been trying to encourage Gabriel to use art as a way to express his feelings, to externalize the difficult emotions.  I worked on a piece about how I felt about being laid-up after my recent surgery, and he imitated me, using red and orange.  He wrote underneath the picture, and I was surprised by what came out:

He said, "Red and orange are very vibrant colors.  They are warm and cosy."

My little boy has an artistic soul.  He picks up vocabulary words and remembers them.  Have I ever explained "vibrant" to him?  I don't remember.  But he tucked the word away somewhere, and pulled it out when he needed it.  How cool is that!