The Firebird

I have a four year old daughter who is obsessed with ballet. In particular she is obsessed with Igor Stravinsky’s Ballet The Firebird. (More on that in a moment…). She also happened to love drawing and painting so for Xmas she received a a copy of Fionna Watt’s How to Draw Princesses and Ballerinas from her grandma.

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


This is a wonderful little book. We have at least one other book by Fionna Watt about how to draw dinosaurs. The title is a little misleading as they are not JUST about drawing. There are a number of other projects involving multimedia, collage and painting. Even the drawing bits aren’t just your standard pencil drawing lessons, but almost all the projects are coloured and use crayons, chalk pastels, watercolour paints and other media.


In the book there is a collage/paintng project of The Firebird (did I mention she is obsessed with this ballet…?). So of course we had to do that one!

Also for Xmas we received a number of pre-stretched and gessoed canvases from Auntie Margie. So we decided to give those a try.


We actually started this project in early February… or maybe even the end of January…? We got a good start on them on afternoon, but had to stop and planned to continue the next day… but one thing lead to another and they just sat… for a MONTH(!?)… and we only just finished them up today!!


Keria Brown, The Firebird, March 2011, Acrylic Paint, Foil, and Paper Collage on Canvas, 28x35.5cm


Finnegan Brown, The Firebird, March 2011, Acrylic Paint, Foil, and Paper Collage on Canvas, 28x35.5cm


Tim Brown, The Firebird, March 2011, Acrylic Paint, Foil, and Paper Collage on Canvas, 28x35.5cm