Into art.
In Let's Paint!, artist Alborozo has created the most charming narrative, 'chatting' with kids about how ideas appear and how artists make them into something beautiful.
Ideas can be fleeting, they can come along in dreams. Sometimes they need to be help tight to! However they appear, one thing is certain - your ideas are valuable.
Once you have your idea in hand, now is the time to explore ways of expressing it. Some artists use bold swirls, some like to paint outdoors, some are patient and exacting, some frenzied! I love that I am using exclamation points in this review! That is how this book makes me feel - excited and enthused and ready to wield a brush. Imagine how it will make a child feel.
I particularly love when the author discusses the ways our paintings can make us feel. Frustrated. Shy. Worried. Until you remember that art has no 'right' or 'wrong'. Art is how you feel. Art is fun. And feeling fun is good.
Along with his charming, amiable text, I simply adore Alborozo's aesthetic in this book. Reminiscent of one of my favourite illustrators, Serge Bloch, the freedom, the movement, the injections of colour and styles are truly scrumptious, all while retaining a classic storytelling/picture book medium that's warm, open and not in the least bit pretentious.
Love.
Title: Let's Paint!
Author/Illustrator: Alborozo
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, $22.99 RRP
Publication Date: July 2013
Format: Hard cover
ISBN: 9781743313695
For ages: 4 - 8
Type: Picture Book