What My Four-Year-Old Has Taught Me About Art
As a parent and an artist, I’m constantly inspired by my four-year-old’s unfiltered approach to creativity. Watching her make art has given me a fresh perspective on my own practice and reminded me of the beauty in curiosity, exploration, and play.
So, what can a 4 year old teach you (and me) about art?
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Today here are some of the lessons she’s unknowingly taught me about making art.
Lesson 1: Use the Paper Without Fear
My daughter uses up a piece of paper without a second thought. Some sheets are full of colorful marks, while others feature a single swirl surrounded by white space. When she’s done, she simply moves on to a new blank page.
In contrast, I once kept a handmade sketchbook from my artist friend Holly Dean for almost five years, waiting for the “right” project to justify its use. My daughter’s approach reminds me that art doesn’t have to meet some imaginary “special” standard to be valid. It’s good and natural to make art, no matter how it turns out.
Lesson 2: Show Up With Intention, Not a Plan
When my daughter sits down to create, she doesn’t start with a rigid plan. Instead, she chooses her medium, colored pencils, clay, or paint, and lets it guide her. Once it’s in hand, she begins to explore.
I, on the other hand, often approach my work with a specific outcome in mind. While this can be efficient, it may also limit my creativity. My best work has often come from letting the materials lead the way. How might I cultivate more of this open-ended exploration in my practice?
Do you have a small child in your life that’s taught you something about your art? Share your lesson or ahas from today’s conversation in the comments below.
Lesson 3: Embrace Multiple Media
Yesterday, my daughter and I made a collage, drew with colored pencils, sculpted with clay, and crafted cat ears out of pipe cleaners and construction paper. She doesn’t limit herself to one medium or worry about mastering any of them. She just dives in.
Perfectionism sometimes holds me back. I’m certain my perfectionism often sets me up to have a certain expectation and standard for my medium. How many ideas are left unexplored because I need to be better at clay, or printmaking or leave it? My daughter’s fearless experimentation reminds me that it’s okay to be a beginner. Time to jump in a whole lot sooner.
Lesson 4: Create in Community
My daughter loves making art with me or others. While she prefers when we use the same medium, she’s learning to accept our differences and simply enjoy the act of creating together.
Being in community is essential. I don’t often get to make art with other adults, but I’ve built connections through a monthly meetup, a weekly accountability partner, and a few trusted friends who give feedback on my work. These relationships have been invaluable as I’ve adjusted to parenthood, moving to Texas, and the general life stress many of us have felt since early pandemic days. In person connections are important and valuable and something I hope to cultivate more of this year.
For those of you seeking online community and connection, Self-Taught to Self-Confident is a learning space where people can show up in the thick of vulnerable learning and not only receive feedback that helps their work, but feel seen and lifted up by peers going through the same thing.
Someone recently shared it’s one of the few spaces she has felt safe online to share her art. Everyone is there in the spirit of learning and growth.
So if you know gaps in your learning hold you back from making your best art, sign up and watch my workshop How to Create Art from your Imagination, for free. It gives you a taste of my teaching and shares more about Self-Taught to Self-Confident, where you learn how to draw or paint anything you want.
Click here or in the links below.
Lesson 5: Learn Through Play
For my daughter, art is play. She experiments with brushes, mixes unexpected colors, and asks, “What happens if I do this?” She doesn’t worry about controlling every aspect of the process.
As adults, we often strive for control, even in our creative work. But this mindset can distance us from our authentic style and voice. My daughter’s playful curiosity reminds me to loosen up. I’ve started setting playful challenges for myself, like creating a portrait in 15 minutes or working only on 9 x 9-inch paper. These small structures give me freedom to rediscover the joy of exploration.
I’d love for you to go through these 5 lessons and share in the comments which lesson is one you most needed to hear today. What is ONE step you could take this week to apply that lesson to you creative practice?
Lessons From Little Hands
Pablo Picasso is famously quoted as saying, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
I taught elementary school art for one year (bless you elementary school teachers!) and in the mayhem of 25 kids learning to cut with scissors or covering themselves with glue I could see their enthusiasm, their confidence and their curiosity.
No one thought, “I can’t do this.”
The thing that scares me is seeing how quickly and easily little ones lose that spark (I could see kids as early as 2nd or 3rd grade start to say they were no good at art). No wonder so many adults move through the world with that spark struggling to stay alive or worse, entirely snuffed out.
What would happen to your art if your first thought was: “Yes, I can”?
My four-year-old has shown me that art doesn’t need to be perfect, planned, or constrained by a single medium. It’s about showing up, experimenting, and embracing the process. Whether it’s filling a blank page without hesitation or collaborating with others, her approach has reignited my own creativity. May it also be a reminder of the simmering power and potential within you.
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Remember: proudly call yourself an artist.
Together we are Artist Strong.
Carrie
Elderly & in a Retirement Home; but, still love making art! Attend an art class in here once a week & have a journal to work in at home. Enjoy reading your e-mails & read anything on art I come across.
Thanks so much for sharing Carole, and I’m so glad you show up for your creative interests.
My own art exploded when I embraced a similar concept shared by Annie Hamman, to paint fearlessly. She painted regularly with her then four year old daughter Tallulah. This wise little artist said “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset!” This is now how I approach my practice.
Shirley that’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing! (I interviewed Annie Hamman many moons ago here).
I Facetime with my 4 year old granddaughter on the “other” coast and we do art/making together. Recently she taught me to draw a rose like she knows how to. She was clear, sequential, accepting of all my questions and my differences. It was a fabulously freeing session and I look forward to more!
Liz that sounds SO awesome. What a beautiful thing to do. Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh my. When you said you taught elementary school for a year–you loved their enthusiasm, confidence and curiosity. No one thought “I can’t do this.” I REALLY related to that. I need to work on letting go of expectations, the perfect end result, perfectionism, and just get back to exploring. Viewing my studio as a lab instead. Gathering information instead of being disappointed over my “mistakes”. I suck the joy out of my art!!! Thanks for this Carrie!
Lydia I totally hear you and its something I need to constantly remind myself as well. We can work on viewing our work as a lab together 🙂