a shady tree

I had my students explain their artwork to the rest of the class this morning: expecting more shyness in response, I was pleasantly surprised to see how unabashedly expressive and proud many of my young artists ended up being. And you must imagine the word “artiste” being said with a flagrantly exaggerated French accent, as that is what I used in class :-)
Riley, for instance, gestured broadly towards his canvas as I held it up for all to see: “This is my tree,” he began. “And there is the sun. The tree is holding up her branches, see–she’s shading her eyes from the sun, ’cause she’s hot.”
It was, incidentally, quite a hot day today . . . and the campers had just been happily romping in the creek before coming into art class.