Kids are tricky.

As a parent, kids can be tricky. In fact, very tricky. They test us, playing mind games that they, along with their pre-teen and teen friends, conspire to catch us up on ourselves, to get us to bring them places, get them stuff, and agree to things we might otherwise not agree to.

But as tricky as they can be to parent, as little humans, they are equally tricky to paint. Their proportions aren’t what your mind thinks they should be, and you have to measure and re-measure relationships between head height/body height. I think the average adult head:body ratio height something like is 6:1. In kids it’s 3: or 4:1.

This piece (work-in-progress) of my daughter Lily when she was about 5, descending a boardwalk to the beach on the Cape, has provided considerable challenges, and good learning opportunities. We’ll see where it goes. She’s almost 13 now, much taller, has a more realistic head:body height ratio, and is less tricky to paint, But no less tricky to parent…