“I think we’re going to do some painting after we’ve eaten.”
“Can you paint?”
I laugh. “No. You can ask your dad how bad I am.”
“You’re notthatbad,” Corey says.
“I think we can let Lexi cast the deciding vote in a bit.” I wink at Lexi, and she giggles. It’s the happiest she’s seemed since I arrived, so I chalk it up as a minor win.
We finish eating, and I wash up while Corey and Lexi clean the table and get things ready for our art lesson. Lexi and I each have a selection of brightly coloured poster paints, a sheet of thick paper, a big brush, a pencil, and a paint palette. Corey has brought his easel downstairs.
“We’re going to do a splatter painting,” Corey says as Lexi puts an apron on.
“Do I get an apron?” I ask.
Lexi laughs. “You’re silly.”
“A splatter painting sounds like it could get messy.” I grin at Corey.
“I’ve only got kids’ aprons,” he says.
“That will do.” I’m not against looking silly if it will make Lexi laugh.
Corey fetches me a red plastic apron, which is far too small. Lexi helps me tie it around my neck and back.
“You look silly,” she declares.
“I’d look even sillier if I ended up covered in paint.”
“We’re painting trees,” Corey says around a chuckle. “So first I want you to draw out the shape of a tree on your paper, like this.” He demonstrates on the paper on his easel.
“Your dad makes it look easy,” I say to Lexi in a stage whisper.
“It is easy.” Lexi starts to draw, her tongue poking out between her lips as she concentrates.
I do my best to draw a tree, but it looks awful. Next, we paint our trees dark brown.
“You’re meant to stay inside the lines,” Lexi tells me.
“I’m trying.”
She giggles. “You’re bad at this.”
After that, I don’t try nearly as hard to paint neatly.
“Choose what colours you want for your leaves,” Corey says.
“Can I do pink, like blossom?” Lexi asks.
“That would look lovely.”
“I think I’ll do green,” I say.
“Boring,” Lexi says.
We both squeeze plenty of paint into our palettes.
“Here comes the messy part,” Corey says. “Put plenty of paint on your brush and then use your thumb to splatter it over your paper, like this.”
