Can you remember your first experience creating as a child? This is a question we have been asking in the artist spotlight form for the past year and a half. The answers have been quite varied. With this post, we are re-featuring some artists and posting their response.
You can see a collection of past re-features at the bottom of this page.
As for myself, I can remember coloring often with crayons. From the very beginning I enjoyed working with color, and layering colors for different effects. In elementary school, my favorite subject was always art. People told from the very beginning that I would be an artist – so I guess it was destiny!
Enough talking about myself .. :) Let’s get to the featured artists who related their own childhood experiences with art.
10 Artists and their Childhood Memories of Creating Art
- Aazam Irilian
California, USA
Style: Representational abstract
Mediums: acrylic, fabric dyes, ink and oil
Childhood memory:
Drawing with charcoal on the sidewalk, which eventually led to using pen and ink at an early age.
- Terry Sita
New Orleans, USA
Style: traditional and impressionism
Mediums: digital painting, photography, water soluble oils on canvas
I am 67 yrs. old, mother of two, grandmother of two and I love painting. I have been making art of many kinds all my adult life. I started with oils and some years later began to do pastel paintings and making my own pastels. I soon was into sculpture and then icons and now my repertoire includes digital painting and photography.
- Nicola Lautre
Brisbane, Australia
Style: Impressionistic
Mediums: Ink and watercolor
Childhood memory:
That would have to be colouring in with my first set of wax crayons as a pre-school child. I cannot remember a time when it wasn't an important part of my life. I used to design paper dolls based on the Blondie comics and also loved designing houses, particularly enjoying adding the final touches, drawing and colouring in the furniture.
- Carol Price Surface
Beverly Hills, California, USA
Style: Abstract Expressionism with figuration
Mediums: Watercolor, Acrylic, Printmaking, Mixed-Media Wall Sculptures
Childhood memory:
As a child I was always drawing and making anything and everything beautiful. When I was in the first grade I won an art contest and my parents sent me to Lochhaven Art Center in Winter Park, FL, which today remains a prestigious art institution. Beauty continues to be the top priority in my art.
- Marcylittleninja
Melbourne, Australia
Style: I think I have my own style but I'm also very influenced with Japanese Shoujo Mangaka.
Mediums: Traditional/ Pencils/ Pens/ etc, Digital/ Paint Tool Sai/ PhotoShop/ Manga Studio.
Childhood memory:
I've been into drawing since the very young age of 6 years old.
I don't remember what my first experience was like but it was most likely about horses, that’s where I started drawing to begin with. I started from a girly obsession for horses but eventually I started watching anime and reading manga in grade 7 then began drawing in a shoujo manga styled way.
- Donna Muller
Nova Scotia, Canada
Style: Realism
Mediums: Acrylic and Oils
Childhood memory:
In elementary school a high school teacher that was very much involved in the arts made a comment that I had talent. I loved creating things that were just a little out there.
- Steven Gordon Linebaugh
Texas, USA
Style: realism, impressionism
Mediums: oils and pastels
Childhood memory:
I was always drawing when I was very young. I have been creating things for as long as I remember, I can't pinpoint the first time but I do remember putting large pieces of paper that would cover my wall and using pastels-the freedom of working so large and watching the colors and shadows stretch across the wall was an amazing feeling. The walls didn't fare so well.
- David Munroe
Glasgow, Scotland
Style: Abstract, Landscape
Mediums: Acrylic, Oils, Inks
Childhood memory:
I always used to draw and colour in books as a child, I was always begging my parents to get me new colour pens or new books to fill with my drawings, Opening up new pencils or paints and starting painting felt so amazing, there was something very special about that moment when you have an idea and it starts to come to life on paper.
- Jonathan Shepherd
Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Style: naive and realism
Mediums: oil paint
Childhood memory:
My first experience would inevitably have been at school, I was lucky to have an excellent art teacher who really nurtured my interest in art.
- Karen Lawson
New Zealand
Style: abstract painting
Mediums: acrylic paint
Childhood memory:
I have always been creative, but like many spent my early years raising children and confining my creativity to the sewing machine, or providing my children with paint and not myself. When I first began painting six years ago it was like taking up an addiction. My hands shook when I first bought a ‘larger’ canvas and began to paint. I still get that feeling of excitement when I have a new surface and a new project is about to begin.
Now it’s your turn…
What was your first childhood memory of creating art?
I don't remember when art started for me, but if I had to say, it would be a horse I did when I was 10 my uncle a commercial artist gave me some tips, on his next trip back to my house , I was so excited to show him my horse,he said he thought I was better than him, now that I am grown I realize he was doing that to help a shy, backward child with self esteem, but I still have that horse from 1971 in my portfolio case, I guess some would say why do you have that in a professional portfolio, but I think it is important to remember where as a artist I came from
ReplyDeleteArt has always been a part of me, I have been told my first works were on mama's pots and pans, but one work sticks out in my mind, when I was 10, my uncle Ron a commercial artist for a airline, gave me tips on horses, after he left , I went to my room and began to praticed I couldn't wait til he came back, finally he came back to our house bursting with excitement
ReplyDeleteI brought my little work to him, I so valued his opinions, he said wow that is a horse, better than mine, as a child that was a spark for a fire. I realize now as a adult, the horse was kind of pitaful, some of the proportions was off. I understand now, he was encouraging me and building my self esteem, I was a very shy akward kid, and he said he knew then how important art was to me and didn't want me to become frustrated with something I love, I still have that first horse keep it in my portfolio, to show where as a artist I came from and also how I've grown since then
embroidering pillow cases with my grandmother. A few of the stitches are gone but it is amazing how much of them stayed in tact.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I was excited about creating was when we did finger painting in kindergarten. I remember that feeling like it was yesterday! Art has always been a part of my life-drawing, watercolor, mixed-media, pottery and trying my hand at photography.
ReplyDeleteMy first memory of creating was making a fairy princess from a roll of toilet paper. I was a hyperactive kid and I only slept for 2 hours per night so my mum taught me to read when I was 3 and got me drawing and creating from that age too to keep myself amused and the rest of the household asleep. I remember the loo-princess as I got in trouble because it was a full roll and my dad didn't notice until after his morning ablutions! I no longer work in 3d - as a 2d artist my earliest memory was at infant school I think I was 4 and we had to write what we did at the weekend and illustrate it. I wrote about my pony and what I fed him and drew him and his tea with carrots in it. Again I got in trouble as I did not have a pony. Decades later and having worked as a (lifestyle magazine) illustrator and then painted buildings for print brochures I am now painting horses again, but the 3d thing never worked out for me.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember exactly my very first experience creating art, but I do remember going to an art class for children held out of doors near San Francisco in a park. There I first worked with water clay and also wire. I was 5 years old. A kid had to be 5 to participate. My subject was always dogs. I REALLY LOVED art more than just about anything and still do. Around about the same time I remember drawing a picture of Little Red Riding Hood and flashing upon the way to make her feet look like she was sitting down. I drew the soles of her shoes. I ran to my mother exclaiming how I had discovered it. I am 59 now. I just went to visit my dad and found that very picture in the attic while walking down memory lane. My mom had kept it safe all this time! She died in 2004.
ReplyDeleteAs a 5 year old, I went to spend the morning at primary school, prior to beginning full time, and I remember falling off my stool at the painting easel!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it didn't put me off, but as my career progressed, it also proved the beginnings of my inner strength
A lovely article.
ReplyDeleteFor me, aged 5, I went to spend the morning at primary school, prior to beginning daily, and I fell off the stool at my painting easel, no kidding.
I am so pleased it didn't put me off, though as my career has progressed, it also proved the beginning of my inner strength!
I was interested in sketching since childhood due to which I select my profession in it and now I am delivering my logo design service in uae. By the way the first sketch I was made with my friends at a picnic we have with our school. It was a good experience for me as a beginner in sketching.
ReplyDeleteWith our write my term paper online services, students are guaranteed quality services that are offered by professional writers are we are the best best custom writing service company.
ReplyDelete