Let Us Encourage Our Children to Engage in Art

Let Us Encourage Our Children to Engage in Art

“I started painting as a hobby when I was little. I didn’t know I had any talent. I believe talent is just a pursued interest. Anybody can do what I do.” – Bob Ross

Dr Abe V Rotor

Engaging children in art fosters creativity, emotional expression, and cognitive development, allowing them to explore their inner world and connect with the world around them. Art provides a unique language for self-expression and can help children develop essential life skills. Internet

Author and tutor Dr Rotor poses with young artists V-jay Rigos, Francesca Ragasa, R-jay Tolentino, and Kimberly Santos, all students of San Vicente Integrated School. March 30, 2025 at Living with Nature Center 

One fine Sunday morning four kids from the neighborhood came

 to draw with pastel colors, cheerful and cellphone-free. 

And what do we know, we grownups, teachers, parents, guardians?

Look at their works of art - what a great discovery!  

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle

 

Take your choice -  color as you wish,

from the creative mind, joyful heart

parrot, jay, heron - just don't miss

the free expression and joy of art.

"A picture is a poem without words". -  Horace

 

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso

Sailboats in the wind sans sailors;

a proud mother hen sans her brood;

sans man's presence, yet complete

to the young, not we who are old.  

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he grows up." - Pablo Picasso

8 Important Benefits of Art for Children 

That Everyone Should Know*

Creating art isn’t just a fun, colorful pastime. It has a variety of unique, positive effects on preschoolers, young children, and teens that other activities don’t provide. Here are eight reasons why you should encourage kids to participate in art on a regular basis.

1. Stimulates Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills

2. Promotes Self-Esteem and Self-Expression

3. Contributes to Fine Motor Skill Development

4. Helps Develop Visual-Spatial Processing

5. Builds Memory and Self-Control

6. Provides Rest, Relaxation, and Reward

7. Increases Academic Performance

8. Connects Kids to People and the World

 

Dr Rotor's family and friends, grownups and children - all disciples and students of art.                   

“The urge to draw must be quite deep within us, because children love to do it” – David Hockney

Acknowledgement with Gratitude to *Painting to Gogh (Painting to Gogh Offers Fun, Engaging Painting Tutorials for Kids), Internet

Lives of 15 Great Men and Women in History. More Books at the Living with Nature Center.

Lives of 15 Great Men and Women in History 

More Books at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." - Charles Dickens 

 "You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to  lose sight of the shore". - Christopher Columbus

 

"There is nothing impossible to him who will try." - Alexander the Great

"There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.". - Sir Francis Drake

 

"Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work." - Florence Nightingale

"To conquer the world, one must first conquer oneself,"- Cleopatra

 

“We study the glory of God, and the honor and liberty of Parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests.” - Oliver Cromwell

"Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go," - Captain Cook

 

"I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes... I really do not see the signal!" - Horatio Nelson

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can". - John Wesley

 

"Give me liberty, or give me death!"- Henry VIII

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". Robert Bruce

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience." - Julius Caesar

"I have not told half of what I saw". Marco Polo

Acknowledgement with Gratitude: Google, Intenet

A Green World of Nature in Pastel

                          A Green World of Nature in Pastel  

Pastel Drawings of Sor Veny V Rotor, ofs

“Away, away, from men and towns,

To the wild wood and the downs, —

To the silent wilderness,

Where the soul need not repress its music.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

A basketful of oranges

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

 - Saint Mother Teresa

Flow gently under the bridge

“Love is the bridge that joins all the worlds together.” – Frederick Lenz

Green turtles 

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." - John Lubbock ~

"Carpe diem" (Seize the Day) in paintings (Article in Progress)

Carpe diem (Seize the Day)

 in paintings* 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ghostly Forest Scape by AV Rotor 2025

Capture dreams on waking up from sleep,

else they fade and depart,

however weird, strange and even creep,

make them a work of art.     

End of Summer (12.5" x 33.5") by AV Rotor 2025

Late morning at autumn's start,

with the sun peeping shy;

southward the birds soon depart,

as we bid summer goodbye.

Legendary Cave by AV Rotor 2025

It reminds us of the Minotaur

slayed by a young hero; 

 wonder if there's a Theseus today,

to make the story true.

 Forest Primeval (34" x 24") AV Rotor 2025

Seres - succession in ecology, 

forests evolve in diversity

and sustained stability - 

but where are the forests today?

 

Waterfall (34" x 24") by AV Rotor 2025

Cloud to rain to waterfall,

down the river to sea, 

again and again,

ad infinitum.  

Blue Fish AV Rotor 2025

 

Pine Trees (35" x 16.5") AV Rotor 2025

 

 

(Seize the Day)

Dusk or Dawn?

  Dusk or Dawn?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dusk or Dawn? in acrylic on wood (8.5"x 14") AVR 2019

Darkness conquers light,

or the other way around;

dusk or dawn delight

    makes the world go round
in colors dull and bright
sans bound and sound. ~ 

But there's no neighbor!

But there's no neighbor!

Dr Abe V Rotor

What is missing in this painting?

"Let's draw a house. Each his own."

The children drew and drew: 

posts, walls, stair window, door;

cheek on palm, eyelids moving; 

garden, swimming pool, patio;

twirling a pencil, added: 

trees, mountain, cloud, sun. 

"Here!" They showed their own houses.

"There's something missing."

Back to the drawing board, pondered:

birds in the sky and in trees singing.

"Here," they showed again their houses.

"There's still something missing.

Would you like to live in your houses?"

Silence. 

Fingers moved, lips tightened:

more lines, shades, colors, now with flowers.

"Here," they showed once more their houses.

"But there's still one thing missing."

Silence.

A little girl in a corner drew and drew:

a house nearby, people around.

She showed her house.

The children chorused: Neighbor! ~

*LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Sail Boats Forever

                                                   Sail Boats Forever 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Sailboats in acrylic, AVR c. 2004

What a crude game, you may say, 

Of my ancestors’ sailboats catching 

The breeze, docking the gusts, 

Edging the rocks, sans compass 

Or sextant, map and telescope.

What prize is at stake? Not a trophy. 

Yet the instinct craves for a prize 

Like in The Old Man and the Sea; 

A prize he found, mindless of people. 

Who saw nothing of his adventure.

Let the sailboats play in the wind

And water, let alone an old boat 

At rest, sitting on rock like an old man,

Standing guard over the young, who too, 

Shall someday play the same old game. ~