In June, while sheltering in place in our small Ohio town, I set up an online Plein Air painting date with Leslie Baum. My little family was awkwardly adjusting to isolation without school or camp or places to go, and I hoped that taking part in Leslie’s daily ritual of making art at home might help spark our own creative rhythm. My seven-year-old son and I gathered peonies from our backyard and placed them in a vase on our dining room table alongside a few potted plants. We set up our paints, paper, brushes, water, and an iPad. While we painted, we video chatted with Leslie as she did the same. My son made several bright paintings as I made one slow and methodical portrait of a snake plant. We shared our progress and Leslie commented that she often makes several paintings of the same scene, a first one to capture the shapes and shadows, followed by more versions guided by gesture and imagination. My son continued to paint without hesitation or inhibition, in that enviable way children make art without suffering self-consciousness. I took Leslie’s advice and tried a second version of the same snake plant that was less tethered to exactitude and more instinct and impression. That second painting was vibrant and strange and full of life. This lesson was a valuable reminder for me as a writer, teacher, and parent to be looser, to not overthink, to let my brush run, and to see beyond what is before my eyes. —Robin Beth Schaer