Sometimes Pharaby just asks to paint. And when that happens, we paint.

Sometimes Pharaby just asks to paint. And when that happens, we paint.
This piece started exactly like that — she walked over to her buttons, let me know it was art time, and we went for it. From start to finish, Discovery came together over a few days, with her choosing everything each time — brush tips, handles, and colors. She even changed her mind partway through, like any true artist.
The first color she picked was a bright orange (you can still spot a dot of it in the final painting), but she ended up painting over most of it — she had bigger plans. After that, she walked over to her buttons and said “Dingbert,” which if you know Pharaby, you know that’s code for blue. (She uses that toy’s name as a color reference a lot.)
So I showed her a few different blues, and she picked the one she wanted, grabbed a fresh brush and handle, and kept going. This one stretched out over several painting sessions. Each time, she picked new colors — two blues in total, a minty green, a little bit of orange, and some deep charcoal gray.
Toward the end, she actually started picking up the paint bottles with her mouth (which was new!). She’s always selected things by nudging or nosing them, but this time she handed them to me like she does with her brush and handle. It felt like a shift. She was figuring out new ways to communicate what she wanted — discovering, literally, a new part of her process.
Her painting style is mostly dabs. She’ll grab the brush in her mouth, kind of press it forward onto the paper, step back, press again. Sometimes she’ll drag it around, but she seems to love that dabby back-and-forth motion. It’s fun to watch. It feels very intentional, but also a little wild, which — let’s be honest — is kind of Pharaby in general.

We ended up naming this one Discovery because that’s exactly what it was. She discovered a new way to interact with her art, and I got to watch it unfold. This painting isn’t just about color or technique — it’s about seeing her figure something out in real-time, and that’s my favorite part of all of this.

Prints of Discovery are available in our shop linked below if you want one for your own wall 🥰