Like those who are not gifted in drawing, I was stubbornly sure my children cannot draw too, since it was not in my genes, and neither my husband's. So since, parents are not gifted, I decided long before that it was not necessary to enrol my kids for any arts lessons outside school time.
All this changed recently, after I read the blog of my former Secondary school Art teacher, Ms Lee Mun Yee, concerning her teaching experience in US. I gained a whole new perspective about Art & drawing like I never had before.
For the first time, I realised Art & drawing is like Mathematics subject. When we first learn about "Algebra" in Primary school, it was a very new math concept. As we continued our Secondary school, we become familiar with it and it became part of our Mathematics understanding. Arts & drawing is much the same, you learn it and practiced it again and again to perfect it.
After reading Ms Lee's blog, I had a personal experiment with Deborah. Last month when she was on medical leave, Deborah told me she had a homework - to draw a picture about "Good News". I decided to sit down patiently with her and teach her what to draw from scratch. I drew it step by step with her, taught her how to draw clouds, trees, grass, building, windows, etc. I even showed her how I would colour my own drawing as an example for her to follow. When we finally finished it together, I could see the sense of achievement on Deborah's face that she could draw!
Since then, she has been drawing the same picture again and again. Here's one she drew all by herself.
From this experience, I am convinced that everyone can draw. Just like how every one of us can count money, learn our math, etc. It's a matter of putting our heart into doing it.
Thank you, Ms Lee for the wonderful inspiration.
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