Nurturing Creative Children How do families deal with children who show an inclination to the arts? Drawing and painting, singing, playing music or dancing is sweet when they are young, but troubling when they don’t grow out of it. One of our final year Fine Art students had his drawings regularly torn up by his father who wanted him to concentrate on a career in Engineering. Many famous artists developed their passion at odds with their families. Degas’ father wanted him to join law school, Gauguin gave up his life as a stockbroker, Cezanne attempted to become a banker as desired by his father; Miro attended commercial college and after two years as a clerk, had a mental breakdown before his parents let him attend art school. While Toulouse Lautrec’s aristocratic parents did not prevent him from studying art, his physical deformity after fracturing both femurs in childhood made him feel more at home in Bohemian Montmartre amongst the outcasts of the music halls...