First Art Adventure: 'The Giraffe and His Tree'

I accompanied M to his first art adventure organised by his art school last weekend and we went to the zoo. 

It was a large turnout with over 45 kids between 5 and 8 and M is one of the youngest. Most kids were with parents and families but a handful went without, like 2 gals from his class who are only 5yo. 

I am surprised the parents would have so much faith in a few coordinators who were quite disorganised themselves, to trust that their girls will be safely looked after. Not that they will jump into a tiger's enclosure, but still there is always the risk of the kids getting lost. Past 11am, there were huge crowds from all directions and it was hard even for adults to follow the group as we meandered our way around the zoo, so not to mention little girls who were walking at a snail's pace. Anyway, I got anxious and kept looking out for them and hovering around them in case they got lost. Maybe these parents were just counting on parents like me. I'm totally unlike them. I just can't do it. I held my boy's hand all the time and never once let him out of my sight. 

The group didn't see much of the exhibits or animals at all. Walked past some and went to check out the long-necked, long lashes beauties where the kids did a little sketching.

Here was my boy sitting on the pavement doing his little sketch of a giraffe. 

Then the group proceeded to a venue called 'Garden with a view" for painting. I thought they were going to paint the garden or some landscape. But no. They were asked to paint giraffes from memory. The kids were grouped into 4, each with a teacher who demonstrated on her canvas and the kids were given quite a bit of freedom to decide on the final product in terms of colours, background and size and number of giraffes. As long as the main theme of the painting is a giraffe, they were free to decide the rest. I love that! 

So some painted one giraffe, others preferred a family. A few girls chose pink skies, others like light or dark blue, with or without clouds. Some wanted skinny necks, others like theirs fat and shortnecked, and hiding behind the bushes. Even the spots on most giraffes were of different colours. Basically, it was a real zoo! 

But most canvases were eventually worked on by parents and kids together as lots of kids struggled to complete in that short 40min. I should mention that only one out of the four groups used pencils to sketch on the canvas, the rest just painted directly with brushes. We did the latter. 

My boy quickly decided he wanted to paint only one gorgeous animal and... a tree! Haha! And went straight to work single-mindedly with his brushes. I let him make all decisions regarding his art so it was his work almost entirely except for a small part whereby I held his hand to paint the tricky area between the bushes and the sky.

So here is his masterpiece which I named 'The Giraffe and his Tree'. :) 

He decided his giraffe had finished eating the leaves and was moving away from the tree. He painstakingly painted the leaves and branches of the trees, all the time assuring me that it will look like a really tall tree! So maybe that was why the tree has no crown and only the trunk and some branches and leaves are seen on the canvas. He deliberately included a branch and leaf that was dropping (see the branch on the leftmost). 

After the painting, the kids were ushered to watch the Elephant Show before proceeding to lunch outside KFC.

It was really satisfying to watch him paint earnestly and I admit enrolling him to art school is one of the best decisions I made this year. Thank you Kole for your urging and encouragement over MSN that one night (if you are reading this). 

After a tiring adventure, the boy settled down to enjoy his Chickee Meal arranged by the art school. I just couldn't stop admiring him as he savoured each piece of his popcorn chicken. He was rather oblivious of the smile hanging on my face though he quizzed me over my silly expression and why I kept cuddling him when he was trying to eat. He probably felt compelled to offer me some of his meal which he did and I greedily tried.