Q is an artistic Genius!

Ok, maybe genius is a bit strong. I'm pretty sure MoMa will not be calling any time soon but for a kid that's just 2 months into 3, he seems to be pretty advanced in his art knowledge.

First, all his paintings and drawings seem to have a distinct style to them. In fact most remind me a bit of Miro... just lacking any real artistic skill. I'm not sure if this is common in his age group or not.

His other, much more amazing, artistic talent isn't in the creating but actually recognizing a specific artists work. We own a few post cards of various paintings that we've picked up over time and have them up on the magnetic wall in the playroom. A few are Van Gogh's. Quite a while back Q happened to point to the Starry Night postcard and ask, "What's that?" I explained to him that it was a painting by an artist named Van Gogh. Now here is where he started to amaze me. On his own, he began picking out the other Van Gogh paintings we have around the house and correctly identifying them as Van Gogh paintings. We have tons of other prints etc from other artists around the house and not once have I heard him incorrectly identify them as Van Gogh's.

This brings us to our outing today to Wet Paint on Grand Ave. If you're unfamiliar, it is an art supply store near Macalester College that is packed with stuff. We went there to pick up a little kid scissors and a glue stick for Q. While we are walking around he stops and points out a Van Gogh coloring book saying, "Look Papa. Van Gogh painting." The reason this was so amazing is that the cover had the Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin on it. To my knowledge, Q has never seen that painting, much less had it identified to him as a Van Gogh. It seems even more amazing when you consider that all the Van Gogh stuff we have around the house is landscapes, none of his portraits.

So, is this weird for a three year old?

Needless to say, we couldn't leave without buying the coloring book.