I am the official 'Art' lady in Niall's class at school. Periodically, I go in and lead the class in a brief discussion of a famous artist and in a corresponding project. This week, I worked with them on Impressionism. The idea of 23 children(+ Leith) all painting in any style is terrifying to me, but they all worked relatively neatly and carefully- all except Niall.
The project was to dab primary colors with the sides of cotton swabs in order to blend the colors while painting an 'Impressionistic' tree. The first time I glanced over at Niall, he had the swabs under his top lip, hanging down, like small tusks. Then he moved on to putting them in his nose and waiting for the girls to object. Then he used them to outline one of his nostrils with red paint, producing a very convincing 'nosebleed'. He spent a few minutes holding a paper towel under his nose, dabbing the 'blood' around his face.
He did find time to paint his tree, which came out much more like a Jackson Pollock painting than a Monet. What a nut!
After the project, Mrs Hanberg returned to take over again. When she saw Niall, she just quietly instructed him to go wash his face- no questions, no visible reaction. Nothing fazes her.