That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for July 29, 2022

Don’t you think his parents are pushing him a little too hard?

“This is not what I meant by miniature painting!”

/// The child prodigy’s parents were thrilled

to have raised a young artist so skilled.

When this painting is through

he can sing and dance, too,

as one-third of the Lollipop Guild.

“Look, Look what our son can do! Our money troubles are over!” “Nu? So he can paint? You think anybody will pay for that?”

Yeah, that looks real impressive form way over here, but what you can’t see is that he’s using a paint-by-numbers picture.

The Van-Dyke will come later.

Young Norman Rockwell didn’t finger paint like the other kids his age…

His first oil on velvet painting!

He would’ve had a great painting career ahead until he ate too much of the lead based paints.

What the heck is that white thing hanging on the upper left wall? It looks like a one-legged cherub crawling toward the ceiling. Creepy.

He’s really excessively short/To engage in OUR favorite “sport”/When the cute little dude/Starts to paint his first nude /His father will end up court..

Kindergarten homework is getting a lot tougher

He had barely begun to toddle/

When his father decided to coddle/

This cute little weasel’s /

Demands for a easel/

Some paint, and his own naked model…

His father: Yes, yes, he’s a child prodigy in all areas, but we still have to drive him to all his soccer practices.

Why one child is, but another is not, a prodigy / Is a rather mysterious natural oddity. / It cannot be genetic / why one’s a genius, the other generic; / As unpredictable as the six winning numbers of a lottery.

Sternberg showed at the Paris Salon/

Where a Second class medal he won -/

But “The kid” took a First/

(And ain’t that the worst ?)

He was quickly surpassed by his son..

Little Leonardo found an ad that says “Can You Draw Tippy?” in his missal.

This painting is titled “A Budding Talent” and is held in the Gothenburg Museum of Art. The artist lived from 1826 to 1896. He was the father of several children, including Olaf Jernberg (1855–1935) who was a German landscape and marine painter.

This young genius genius was not misbegotten/

But our treatment of artists is rotten/

And history shows/

That he’s one more of those/

Whose genius was promptly Forgotten.

Like the Dürers, the Holbeins, and others/

Whom I’d join (if I had my “druthers”)/

We frequently bother/

To study the father../

When they may have had talented mothers !

Someone needed to create postage stamp art.

“How to draw Doug”

All great things start out small!

Some kids are lucky enough to just have to sing for their supper.

“SH*T! I’m outta brown. Oh wait! I know where to find some…”

Doogie Holbein

Jack, having climbed the beanstalk, took up residence in the giants home.

Portrait Of The Artist As A (really) Young Man

" Dad, are sure this is how Bob Ross got his start? "

A Budding Talent: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:August Jernberg" site=https://commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string Budding, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (best viewed using Google Chrome, with Google Translate added to chrome://extensions, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting. As with prior WC .tif files, if you want to enlarge the displayed image, choose the dimensions from the list under the image; clicking the image itself will download it unless your browser knows how to handle .tif files.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2968 (July 29, 2022) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there pointing to some info about this artist. First work, by this artist, used here.

Hans Holbein the Younger passed in 1543. He was the first “the Younger” artist (there have been 7) Mr. Melcher used here, on July 22, 2012, and 4 times since (the last on August 8, 2013), the only such used multiple times (so far).

The boy was a painting prodigy, but he had to call for an adult to paint the upper half of the portrait.

Hindrek was a great painter, but he only did miniatures

There’s nothing remote£¥ obscene/

About this id¥££ic scene:/

It’s perfect for prudes/

(No vestige of nudes !)/

And our censor has rated it €£EAN !!

Yea … it seems silly. But it’s cheaper than having to repaint the walls all the time.

Bob couldn’t wait to leave home and grow an Afro.

Beware the precocious brat/

And what he hides under his hat/

Just a kid, with a palette and brushes/

And a gift that his poor Papa’s crushes..

He’s not three feet tall/

But it’s Dad who must crawl/

It’s disgusting the way folks gushes…///

Papa wants to strangle the brat/

But mother will have none of that/

And Papa must agree/

For it sure isn’t he/

Makes the family fortune grow fat..///

There’s no harsher mistress than Art/

In an instant she’ll tear you apart/

The best are forgotten/

Wealth and fame woo the rotten../

It’s enough to break a man’s heart..,