First and Last Paintings Side by Side
Do You Remember Your First Painting?
I don’t know about you, but when I was little, there were few things I enjoyed more than painting time. Even as a toddler, it was always fantastic to be given a sheet of white paper and the tools to make it colourful.
After over two decades of creating things - be it for school, for fun, for gifts or just absent-minded doodling - one doesn’t often think of such humble beginnings. How often does one consider one’s very first painting - an abstract mess of shapes conjured a relatively new mind that doesn’t even know the word “abstract”, and probably couldn’t spell it if they did?
But a little while ago, I was looking through some old folders and I found this, which I apparently painted aged 2:
If you look closely, you can see the outline of a butterfly. This would’ve been what my mum drew for me to colour in but, as you can see, I went just a little outside the lines!
While I have no memory of painting this “butterfly”, it is written at the bottom of the paper that this was the first painting I ever made. How special, I thought, to have a record of my first ever access to paints: a multicoloured monument to the day a lifelong love of arts and crafts began.
Then it occurred to me that, as fate would have it, my most recent painting was also of a butterfly, painted for my nan’s birthday card:
Not only is this one more inside the lines, but now I’m drawing the lines for myself!
Reference image
So through all I’ve seen and done since the age of 2, a love of painting (and butterflies) still endures.
What’s the oldest of your paintings that you have? Maybe if you can find it, you can have a go at painting the same thing again now!
Happy Crafting!
~KC 🐨🧶
