A toddler has gotten so good at finger painting that his paintings have sold for thousands of dollars.
Laurent Schwarz from Bavaria, Germany, is most known for his various abstract artwork that depicts animals including elephants, horses, and dinosaurs. According to the painter’s mother, Lisa, who spoke with The Times, Laurent’s fascination with art dates back to September 2023 when they were on vacation in South Tyrol, Italy.
The mother recalled that her two-year-old son quickly became obsessed with a painting that was in their hotel room, to the point where they struggled to pull him away from it.
“There was a painting room in the hotel and we couldn’t get him out of it,” she told the outlet. “Just before Christmas we set up a studio for him and he was in it all the time.”
Lisa was so proud of her son’s work that she created an Instagram page called Laurent’s Art dedicated to her toddler’s artwork. On the page, she shares photos of the paintings as well a Laurent’s painting process.
She stated that part of Laurent’s creative process is mixing together his own paints and then applying to canvas using brushes, rollers, spatulas, and his fingers. However, this does often result in being covered in just as much paint as the canvas is.
As of May 29, the page has almost 30,000 followers.
“I thought I’d set up a channel because what he was painting looked so nice,” Lisa said. “That triggered a real hype.”
Because of the attention Laurent’s paintings were gaining on Instagram, Lisa then created a website, allowing people to purchase his art if interested. According to The Times, his paintings have gained interest from Munich’s biggest art fair, ART MUC, in April, as well as buyers from both the UK and the Bahamas.
“They’re abstracts and what’s unusual is how he integrates discernible figures into them, which people often mention to us and which makes them so popular,” Lisa said of her child’s artwork.
“You can clearly recognize his animals, like elephants which are one of his favorite animals, as well as dinosaurs and horses. It’s very important to him that it’s bright and colorful. Brown and other boring colors don’t interest him. He has very clear ideas about the colors he mixes.”
Most recently, a gallery in New York has requested to display the toddler’s paintings while a private viewing of his art will be happening in August near his home in Neubeuern.
According to his mother, any money raised from the paintings has gone into a separate account saved for Laurent until he turns 18.
Lisa also noted that Laurent is never forced to paint and can sometimes take long breaks from the activity. “It’s totally up to him when and what he paints,” his mother said.
“Sometimes he doesn’t feel like painting and doesn’t set foot in his studio for three or four weeks but then suddenly it grabs him and he says: ‘Mama, painting.’”
“Everything will continue as before, he is completely free to decide how he paints and whether he paints, so time will tell what happens,” she continued. “The extraordinary thing is that many people want his paintings and want to get to know him. We want to make this as normal as possible for him.”
