Someone commented on one of my posts recently:
“My three-year-old could’ve painted this.”
Normally, I let that kind of thing slide. It’s such a tired line it’s practically become background noise. But this time, I couldn't help myself but reply. Not defensively, but with a quote that still rings true nearly a century after Picasso said it:
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
That’s the real conversation.
A three-year-old could paint like this and that’s exactly the point. Children create without the weight of expectation. They don’t wonder whether it’ll sell, or match the couch, or make sense to anyone else. They just make. Somewhere along the line, most people lose that ability. They trade it for control, certainty, approval.
The irony is, what looks simple to some is often the hardest thing to hold on to. That raw, fearless instinct to make marks without needing them to mean something.
So yes, maybe your child could have painted it. I just never stopped letting mine try.