When toddlers and young children start to use colours, we tend to immediately feel we should impose restrictions. Even the best-intentioned liberals amongst us will feel we must tell the child that the sun is in fact yellow and not green. While it is important for children to learn their colours and be guided in the ways of the world around them, try to curb your desire to over-engage in these educational activities during creative play.

It can be much more beneficial to use their seemingly-obscure colour-schemes as a prompt for asking the child what other colours the sun might be, or what colours are in the trees. Children who are allowed to express themselves more freely in terms of colour may actually be more observant later on and this could be reflected positively in their art.

Most of us think the sky should be blue and the tree foliage should be green. However, this does not necessarily accurately reflect the world around us, what it does reflect is possibly how we were taught to use colour in a prescriptive way that tends to stifle creativity. More often than not, the sky is not blue and can contain many colours, and the foliage of most trees varies throughout the year. When I paint, I use a lot of blue and black when painting even the most green-looking leaves.

Trust your child’s artistic instincts – even if it does mean a green sun, it may show greater insight than you think!