Childhood Treasures from Down Under

I found this fantastic artist on Etsy when I was looking for Christmas gifts for my two neices.... aged 3 and 1. All of my family lives in Canada, while I live in Norway, so sending gifts can be a bit of a challenge. If clothes do not fit properly, they cannot be returned. We have to think of size and weight when shipping. We have to consider that items might be broken on the way... although of course there is not so much we do about that in any case.

I had considered for some time of perhaps sending these two girls art work that they could hang on their walls and look at during the quiet times of their days, namely in the morning and evenings. There is a artwork enough on Etsy geared towards children, but when I saw the work of Lloyd, who goes by the user name of TummyMountain on Etsy, I knew I had found exactly what I was looking for.

TummyMountain's work is appealing on a lot of different levels. The pictures are simple and without a lot of complicated visual details. The simple faces of the children could be *any* child. The pictures themselves are not static, but have an energy and an expectant engery that flows through them. Something is always about to happen or a new world has just been created. It's something that all of us can recognize from out own childhoods, and in the lives of our children.

And who can not smile at the full fury of a little youngster that doesn't have his or her own way? There's something precious and beautiful about even this.

And finally, the small disasters that come about from trying to be adults in a world children don't quite have access to yet. Even when we know we should be angry at them, they have our full sympathies.

I purchased two paintings for my neices, and have been informed that Lloyd and his wife have gone to the extra effort to find the perfect holiday wrapping for two small ones, who probably will only appreciate the wrapping paper at this stage of the game.. This is perhaps not so easy to do at the end of September, when the rest of the world is still getting used to the start of school and the upcoming of Halloween. They have certainly made my day and I just felt I had to share my treasure with the rest of the world.