Colouring between the lines

"He needs to colour inside" said a random 4 year old as I sat beaming with joy and pride looking at my two year old colouring a picture at the local library .That triggered a flurry of thoughts in my head which was quickly interrupted again. "He doesn't know how to do it, does he?” she continued. I smiled back at her and appreciated her eye for art. At the same time I wondered if children 'need ' to do things a certain set way specially if its art. I also realised he didn't 'know' how to colour inside the lines yet but he knew something that most grownups don't that was to be himself, original, spontaneous and uncorrupted by the demands and regulations of social behaviour. Isn't the whole purpose of art to liberate oneself, to let oneself go, to give a free reign to your creativity. The end product I think is brilliant even though the pig is coloured in purple and green in addition to the conventional pink and the crayons have travelled the entire territory of the page regardless of the boundaries. Children seem to have an instinct for art which for me is beautiful without any imposition of rules and structure. After all it's their innocent interpretation of the world and them colouring their imagination with a riot of colours that makes them all so unique. Children are perfect just the way nature intended them to be - uninhibited, liberated and creative beyond limits even if that means colouring a pig green and leaving stray marks all over the page.