This is something I worked on with my niece Eleni before summer. She wanted to do something creative, to paint or sculpt or something.

I had a small MDF board lying around which I offered for her first go at painting with acrylics. She chose the theme and the colours and, with my guidance, she began to work on it.

The first thing you need is a background, so using a sponge she applied the colours she wanted to produce this abstract green and yellow base.

Once that was done, I sketched in the shape of the pineapple for her so she could begin to apply paint. This is how it ended up looking. Not too shabby for someone who has never picked up a paintbrush in her life!

Sorry the photo is a bit blurry but it’s the only one I have at that stage.

Eleni didn’t want to continue with it after that and asked me to finish it for her, which I did the other day. To be honest I was sick of seeing it lying around (like so much of my art)…

This is the finished product. All that remains is to give it to Eleni to put in her home. It didn’t turn out bad at all, I think. All I did was deepen the shadows, add highlights and basically give it more depth and detail.

Well done, Eleni. I look forward to working with you again after the busy summer season.

z