A3 (30 x 42 cm) acrylic on recycled, heavyweight watercolour paper
by Eldest Sonshine, age 16
 
Another extrordinary painting session yesterday for our number 1 painter; Maximus. Once again choosing to paint using one of my photos as inspiration.
 
This is one of my favourite photos. It is of Tristan gazing up at a penguin at an aquarium. He stood here for long minutes in rapture, watching them zip and zoom about so gracefully in the water. Previously to this trip he'd only seen penguins waddle about on land from a distance at a zoo, and he was fascinated with their underwater transformation. He didn't have very much language at that age, but he said "wow!" over and over.
 
I love so much being there to watch Max make his choices for what to paint when he goes through the photos like this. For such a long time he was painting 'only' abstracts (which are INCREDIBLE too!) but painting from reference is such a different creative experience and previously has taken him hours to complete. Not this painting! This painting took him all of about 15 maybe 20 minutes! I was absolutely astounded! I helped him to mix the sea green after the blue for the water, and a tiny bit for the shape of the penguin and Tristan, just with my suggested instructions and pointing a finger to where to start lines. All marks are his own.
 
A window into wonder for the subject, the artist and the viewer.