Carlie Parkinson

Transforming your child’s cherished art pieces

Cherishing your children’s art is a parent’s duty, but sometimes there is too much to put on the fridge and your house is overcome by pieces from your aspiring artist. How do you encourage your child and ensure that original pieces aren’t damaged along the way? How do you capture those precious drawings that only that adorable little hand could have made?

Visual artist, Joyce Ozier, has created a new type of fine art to help parents showcase their child’s prized pieces. The Little Picasso Series is a commissioned series that will take that magical image and work it into a professional, gallery-quality painting, well worthy of a special spot in your living room.

Joyce can relate to the art curating challenges of many. “Like most parents, I proudly displayed a changing exhibit of my children’s art on our fridge. I’ve saved a number of those precious drawings in a drawer, but they are now yellowed and dog-eared and some are starting to disintegrate.”

The delight Joyce felt when reminiscing about her children’s drawings was what inspired her to find a way to capture the joy and passion of those early beginnings and preserve their art by creating a large abstract painting that is gallery quality and suitable to proudly display for years to come. “Some children who show great talent for drawing when they’re small just stop when they get older, making their early art all the more precious.”

Even Pablo Picasso knew that a child’s art was irreplaceable, “Every child is an artist… it took me four years to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to paint like a child.”

Wanting to get a better understanding of Joyce’s process, my son and I got started on an original collaboration of our own. The first step was going through my son’s existing art. I’m embarrassed to say, there were many pieces that I had never seen.

All the art had gotten tucked away and my five-year old’s collection was hidden. When we went through the pieces, it was a great opportunity to talk about the art, find out more about each piece and get rid of some that had been, sadly, destroyed along the way. In the end, we narrowed the collection to just five pieces to choose our favourite from. The choice was a beautiful owl he had drawn at school. It stood out to me because it wasn’t his usual spaceships and Star Wars inspired art—it was more whimsical. After we picked the owl, we sent a photo of it to Joyce to let her begin the transformation.

After doing some preliminary sketches, Joyce transfers the child’s drawing onto her canvas using a high-powered projector, tracing the exact lines. “I may repeat one section several times. My intention is not to restrict myself to the literal composition that is photographed, but to use the elements of the drawing in a designed arrangement,” she says.

Once the essence of the original has been transferred to canvas, Joyce employs a use of colour, a vital element of her overall style. “I start the painting using large brushes and actively apply colour using sweeping gestures over the whole canvas, instinctively melding the child’s drawing into a balanced abstract,” she states.

When we received our completed masterpiece, we were both delighted. The owl now has a stunning motif surrounding it and is ready to be hung on our wall. I’ll be proud to tell people the story of our newest piece of fine art, knowing that my son’s inspiration was what helped to create such a beautiful piece.

About The LITTLE PICASSO SERIES©

The LITTLE PICASSO SERIES© is a commission series by Joyce Ozier, Visual Artist, that will take that magical image and work it into a professional, gallery-quality painting well-worthy of a special spot in your living room.