Monsters by Jennifer Lommers (and her 8 yr old son)
Artists old and young have vivid imaginations and practice our art skills regularly to improve our technical skills in various mediums - crayons, pencils, paint, computers. I’ve been painting with my grandson since he was quite tiny - at 10 1/2, he knows how to use professional watercolor paper because I started giving it to him to paint on with finger paints when he was about 3 or so.
I had never used anything but the newsprint type papers for watercolors until after he was born - it had never even occurred to me the oil painter to think about what paper was used for painting in watercolors after my hideous experiences with the truly cheap paper most people give children. I did not want him to have those type experiences to remember … finger paints and watercolor paint are difficult to create artwork with on their own due to the very nature of those paints … using cheap paper that melts if looked at closely let alone actually painted upon … well … to put it mildly, since I did not want him around my toxic oil paints as a toddler … I started learning about watercolor papers and using them. I like watercolor blocks best usually, especially since I do nto stretch my paper before painting.
My daughter told me once that he is a kid and doesn’t know the difference between expensive paper and cheap paper or the difference between paints or watercolor pencils or between expensive brushes vs cheap brushes. Of course he does know - there is a big difference and anyone who uses them knows and feels the difference right away.
This morning, I discovered Jennifer Lommers and the paintings she and her 8 yr old son created together. They are gorgeous and very well done. If she hadn’t told me they were a collaboration with her young son, I would not have known. Very well done and lovely - they would be a marvelous addition to any decor any where or to add to a monster / fantasy art collector’s collection. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that yet another artist is busy enjoying art with a child and fostering joy in creating artwork to share with the world so we can see their unique vision and hear what they have to say.
