What struck me as I watched Emma paint the other day was how she has placing the colors on the paper. She was not simply dipping her brush into the paint as it was placed on her palette. She was looking at the colors then very methodically placing them on the paper in a specific way. In the beginning with a slash of color near the middle of the paper, she then added another slash nearby. As I watched she continued with a streak of color on one side fanning out from the middle. She did not simply alternate colors – first one side then the other, but seemed to consider where the next color would go. None of this was done in a perseverative way. What struck me was how non-perseverative the process was. She seemed to study her choices of both color and their placement before putting brush to paper.
This morning I said, “Hey Em! Want to paint?”
“No thank you,” she said as she shot by me on her scooter.
“Hey Nic! Want to paint something?” I asked.
“No. I’m good, Mom,” came his reply.
Emma's Hope Book 