A little bit of Theo on everybody's mantlepiece.

Later than they were meant to be, but here at last. Theo has been slaving over a hot paintbrush throughout December, creating unique cards for everybody on his list.

Some have been designed with a few simple swipes of the brush - others have been given more saturation of paint. Either way, nobody else will have anything like it!

(He's available for commissions, by the way.)

Theo's range of Christmas cards, coming soon!

Theo has begun work on his personal range of Christmas cards - each unique, and adding a splash of colour to mantlepieces the country over. Watch this space!

A commission, at last!

I recently sent the link for this website to a dear friend of mine. He appreciates art, so Theo's pictures were a great delight to him. Obviously. He also set Theo his first commission; requesting a bespoke piece that could adorn his wall, and make him a huge profit when Theo becomes famous (in whatever capacity; he may turn out to be 'Theo, the fastest binman in the West' for all we know...).

Theo was not in the painting mood for a few days after my friend and I spoke, but then the muse struck him and he was off. This was his creation - it speaks to me of the Far East, but I'll leave you to make up your own mind...

Izzy Whizzy, let's get busy...

Minimalist this felt-tip creation might be, but there's no doubt what the young artist had in mind when he sat down to work. Having just been to watch the fireworks in Banstead and declaring that he 'doesn't like bangy ones', I feel this picture truly reflects his delight in the 'whizzy ones'...

Good enough to eat

A diversion away from painted or chalked art; instead Theo's first stab at baking (he didn't watch The Great British Bake Off but his mother might have...).

A big fan of cook books, Theo likes to sit on the kitchen floor whilst waiting for his tea and look through them all. He's particularly fond of Lorraine Pascale, and one day happened upon a recipe that must put several thousand calories on you by reading it alone. Bags of caster and icing sugar, bricks of butter and what seemed like my own weight in chocolate, but it looked fantastic on the page and we did a pretty good job of replicating it too.

In case you're wondering, Theo's area of expertise mainly revolved around the tipping in of ingredients at the beginning of the process, and the Malteser decoration at the end. In between he concentrated on moving his cars and little men around on the living room table.

(Note to Paul Hollywood - I'm available for the next series....)

A true artist will work with any material

Metallic white and red were mixed to make a cupcake pink - this went down very well with Theo who made some beautiful sparkly swirls. He then went on to paint over all this with his other colours, but some pink remains at the top left. Those with extremely sharp eyes will notice that in amongst the pink paint is a couple of, let's call them 'splats' of Thomas the Tank Engine yoghurt, which dropped on to the paper whilst he worked. Hey, artists have got to eat you know...

 

And for those of you who are curious - it was the 'Harold the Helicopter' yoghurt from the set of six that he selected today.

Thinking about breakfast

This was a simple affair - two colours were chosen, and two colours only were used. Is it an abstract of a cheeky cloud scudding across the sun? Or perhaps it's a comment on my presentation of breakfast; I'm not the tidiest at dishing up fried eggs...

Colours galore

Back to the easel - created in a short sitting but with real intensity. No hesitating over colours or brushstrokes; Theo got his hands dirty creating this depiction of....hmm, what? I'm seeing a blustery day, a person out in the wind with their coat and scarf being blown hither and thither. But who knows what Theo was thinking when he started splattering the paper with those vibrant hues? It might be bin men again.

The work of the dustbin lorry - captured in chalk...

An interesting one, this. Chalk was the medium of the day, and it started off on the easel (yes, it's reversible...) capturing one of Theo's favourite things - the dustbin lorry - complete with bin men and bins in a variety of colours. There were big bins, little bins, red bins, blue bins, green bins and brown bins. Oh, and a purple bin thrown in for fun.

Once this masterpiece was complete he turned to his small 'on the move' chalk board - adding a further, smaller depiction of the dustbin men doing their rounds - and then balancing it carefully on the small wooden ridge provided by the bottom of the easel frame. This was all the more satisfying for him as Mummy had just told him that there wasn't enough room to balance it there...

From paint to pens.

 

A change of material for Theo now - and this was completed in one sitting. Passionate but considered sweeping pen strokes constructed this rainbow of colour. The vertical line cutting through it all is possibly symbolic...but I don't know what of.

 

 



A bird of paradise swooping down...and a humming bird taking off.

Theo's rainbow

 

Swift brushstrokes sweeping across the page, and a swirl of glittery white to give his rainbow a sparkle.

 

A few strokes of the brush and voila: summer...

This is one of my favourites, reminding me as it does of flowers.

Introduction to The Art of Theo

Theo is two. He likes to paint. He has an interesting style which involves walking past his easel (oh yes, none of this sitting at a table malarkey for him), making a few considered brushstrokes and then wandering off until his muse strikes him again.

Whilst his choices of colours are limited - generally red, blue, green, yellow, sparkly white and on occasion (i.e. if I can be bothered to mix them) purple, orange and brown - and his slaps on the canvas appear to be fairly random, there is also a sort of pleasing similarity to them. I feel they are too pretty to be kept to our walls, and as such should be shared.

His pictures have brought a lot of pleasure to family and friends (I often include them inside birthday cards, or as wrapping paper) and they have certainly given us an excuse not to paint our dining room.