Art exhibition

I attended an art exhibition, it cost me 20 pence. 

Sophia spent several hours painting her heart out and wanted me to display them.


She did so many that not all of them made the cut. The school room floor was a mass of paintings. 

For an autistic little girl who struggles with being dirty and messy, it was a massive achievement as paint sticks were involved. She was in a happy, calm headspace and could control her anxiety. 

Sophia has processed through art since she could hold a crayon, it is one of her main coping mechanisms, despite her conflicting anxiety. This is why it's been so important for me to work with her to control the fear and place in coping mechanisms for her to be able to use the art as her processing tool. 

When her life revolved only around hospitals for several years, the art was very dark and distressing. 

However it was her way of dealing with the trauma and as she couldn't express it verbally, I was grateful she had found an outlet to express what was bottled up inside. 

As she has grown older and the hospital has lessened, her art has turned more imaginative. I love free art expression.

Sophia does choose sometimes to follow step by step guide art books when she is in that particular mindset, other times she just needs to empty her brain. 

They're basic pictures, common for a six year old, I'm not saying she's the most talented in the slightest. She tends to be very simplistic style with paint, with greater detail with pencil. 

What is important for both of us, is the story/message behind them.

I hope you enjoy your walk through her gallery. 

We have a healthy food appreciation section, ghost chilli sauce, an apple, an orange and a pickle 😂, a long way away from the classic fruit bowl. 

She drew a lighbulb (we had been talking about sources of light earlier in the day). 

We have a water monster sending a tunsumi to fight the flames from a fire monster. 

We have a self portrait with some of her organs drawn underneath, including a stomach, heart, Lungs, kidneys and the spine. Interesting choice. 

A rainbow appreciation section naturally had to happen, she loves rainbows. We have a shooting star over a rainbow, a rainbow unicorn and snail, followed by a couple of scenes. 

We have a story mapped out where two children are playing and one of them breaks a bone which results in them going to hospital (I hope never to have this scenario).


The final one is a depiction of our lesson that morning on renewable energy and fossil fuels. We have our planet surrounded by symbols for the sun (yellow), water (blue), earth energy (green) and wind (grey) working together to undo the damage of fossils fuels (red), so to stop the destruction of the rainbow which is becoming enveloped by the blackness.

We had been talking about the ozone layer but she chose to depict it as the death of rainbows. 

The next day we visited some art galleries virtually (good old YouTube) and Sophia was very excited to see a multitude of different styles. She was inspired by one particular artist to the point she spent an hour trying to recreate a picture with her basic paint sticks. 


Sophia has written out a description of her art work, perfect handwriting practice. We also performed a few cash transactions for the paintings, practicing maths skills. 








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