This time I’m taking no risks – September’s Mini-Masterpieces got absolutely no contributions – a first since I started it back in February.  I think this is partly because I added the link-up onto another post so that lots of people missed it, and partly because having had the enforced blogging break which made me miss posting the August Link-up, people forgot about it. Or then again, perhaps nobody’s children had produced anything of note, but that seems unlikely. Fortunately I’m not one to take these things personally – there’s lots of link-ups out there – many of them well established and vigorously promoted. This one unfortunately has none of those advantages – in fact it always astonishes me that anyone ever finds this blog because I am so very poor at promoting it. However there aren’t too many link-ups that are dedicated specifically to children’s artwork – since most are craft or play related, and while there is of course an overlap, I feel that there is still room for a few link-ups that are geared towards children’s artwork especially.

For my own part, I always like to share some artwork that my own kids have been producing. These days most of the drawings and paintings they produce are completely self-initiated, in that I have little or nothing to do with it, and I always feel that this is the way it should be as they get older. I’m (nearly) always there to give help and support for their own projects if it’s needed though, and as for the projects which I initiate, they are free to take part or not, as they wish. I’m not personally of the opinion that you can turn a child into someone who is driven to produce artwork if the urge isn’t there – I think you can encourage that urge, but I’m not convinced you can force it. So I was actually quite pleased when my 4 year old told me the other day that often he can’t get to sleep because he has so many ideas in his head. I know the feeling! Unfortunately he’s too young yet to adopt my trick of keeping a notebook by the bed to get the ideas out of my head and onto paper, but I thought it was a really good sign for the future. I’m rarely allowed to throw old plastic bottles and cardboard boxes away these days, because he tells me he wants to use them for something, or he has an idea for them, and while these rarely come to fruition (again, a bit like me really), at least the impulse is there.

The Dinosaur drawing above is actually the work of my 7 year old. It is an unfinished masterpiece, but is already one of my favourites!

So, on to the link-up. If your child has produced some artwork recently, feel free to share it below. This is an excellent opportunity to share some of your Halloween masterpieces for example. There are no rules for this Link-up – you don’t have to to provide a link, grab a badge, mention your participation or jump through any other hoops to take part, (sigh – I’m missing the opportunity for self-promotion again) though a badge is available (in right side-bar) if you want to use it. You can even share some less recent artwork if you wish to do so. And finally don’t forget, if you are on Flickr, the Artful Kids Flickr Group is also there for sharing artwork by children under the age of 12.

Here’s hoping I get some entries this time!