My niece is a brilliant young artist. She has always been so. She seems to be focused on faces. And she has a rich imagination which she can embed into her scenes.
I give her a small challenge, she jumps at it and excells. For example, I plopped her down in front of a paint program on my computer, showed her how to change the colors and draw lines. She put out 4 portraits in 20 minutes. They were garish, but when I suggested she do men as well as women and vary the skin tones, she did it and did it well. When I sat to paint beside her, showing how to detail a tree trunk and dot on leaves instead of making a green cloud, she took to it with enthusiasm. I showed her a field of what she would have painted as grass, and told her to see the colors and she could! She picked them all out.
She's 7 years old (nearly 8). She amazes me.
Her last endeavor was a still life. She was given a book (made for adults) on the basics of acrylic painting. She picked a page and made a painting. She didn't even know what a wash was. After I explained it, she did it and then produced the following painting (wine! She's a riot):
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