Tomsin George talks arts at 7

My name is Tomisin George and I am 7 years old. I started Art by Tomisin when I was 6 years old from a hobby I developed after attending a painting session with my aunt. I was really wowed by the experience because it showed me that painting could be a lot of fun.

I love to draw and paint and I love colouring too. I don’t think you need to be a perfect drawer to love drawing; you just need to keep practising. I also think of myself as being creative as I have some creative hobbies such as playing the piano, baking and making cards. When it’s my friends,’ teacher’s or parents’ birthdays, I would rather make them a greeting card than buy one. I like to write my own personal greetings in the cards. I also like cake a lot! I started a business called ‘Treats by Tomisin’ when I was 5 years and I made banana bread and sweet treats for sale but I soon moved into ‘Art by Tomisin’. I would say I’m quite lucky because my parents encourage me to try out different things. I think it’s important for young kids to try out different things in many different areas to help us discover who we really are and the things we love to do.

After completing the summer KENT classes in the specialty I had selected which was painting, we were all given the opportunity to showcase the skills we learnt at the KENT Fair. I was so scared and nervous! I honestly don’t think I’m such a great drawer or artist but my mum wouldn’t take no for an answer so I had to get to work and start creating the pieces I planned to display for sale at the fair. I remember working so hard that week to create all my pieces.

I created five pieces and would you believe I was able to sell three of them at the fair! This made me so happy and boosted my confidence. I remember one thing that made me scared was the fact that most of the other kids at the fair were selling fast moving goods at lower prices, but each of my own pieces cost nothing less than N10,000! My mum helped me calculate the price I should sell each piece by adding the money that was used to buy all the materials and the time that I spent to paint the pieces. The price was a fair amount that would make sure my parents got back their investment and that I also made some profit for my piggy bank

I have some of my pieces displayed at home too. My mum hung them up in different parts of the house. It makes me happy when I see them every day. My pieces are very arty, fresh and playful; I have my personality in them

Painting is something that is really time consuming and can be messy, so I get to paint during school holidays. I hope to put another collection together again soon and maybe I can start having my own exhibitions sometime in the near future. My mum says she’s taking me to Nike Art Gallery this holiday so I can see the beautiful pieces on display there.