Little Elisabeth (Libby) Williams became a revelation in the art world: her blog Like It Was Done By A Toddler is rapidly gaining popularity among connoisseurs of modern art and ironic humour.

The chief assistant and author of the idea is the girl's mother, Mary Williams. 'This all started as a joke', says the woman. 'I was texting my friend who also has a little daughter. My friend is in the art world, and we sent each other pictures of daughters' paintings with comments in the spirit of gallery catalogues. Over time, I could not get rid of the manner seriously describe Libby's works so I decided to start a blog for fun.'

Nee Naw 3: Out To Pasture, 2018, mixed media
This poignant closing tryptich in the ‘Nee Naw’ series explores different directions that have been taken by the gradual decline of our public service ethos from its twentieth-century apogee. Whether a kind of resigned, angry collapse, an escape into hedonism or simply abandonment – an ethic, a mindset ‘put out to pasture’, Nee Naw 3 challenges us to ask whether our responses to the collapse of a powerful communitarian ideal need really be the end.

The first blog entry dates back to August 5, 2018, and each picture is accompanied by a thoughtful description focusing on the depth and meaning of the picture.

In addition to Libby's works, the blog exhibits drawings by visiting artists — the resource is open to applications from young talents from around the world.

[VISITING ARTIST] Homo Homini Lupus, 2018, mixed media
Visiting artist Dorothy Locke joins Pipsinella and Libby Williams in stylistic and thematic dialogue here around ideas of nature, wildness, predation and the food chain. The tiger stands in for Homo sapiens as apex predator in this piece, which mixes mundane references to mealtimes and the body beautiful with darker intimations of the raw violence of survival in the (our) carnivore’s world.

There are several works by Libby Williams below spiced with the adult sarcasm.

This art looks like it was done by a toddler. Oh, wait

Landscapes 6: The House In The Woods, 2018, watercolour
his evocative work revisits a more traditional use of watercolour paint but retains the artist’s characteristic bold brushwork, offering up a landscape of shadowed forms and far-flung perspective that hints at faraway topographies of mystery and longing. Though included in the ‘Landscapes’ series it is more of a ‘landscape of the soul’, that tempts the viewer ever deeper into the woods with dreams of Thoreau, Frost’s Road Less Travelled, or perhaps the forest-dwelling archetypes of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.

Archetypes 2: Titan, 2018, watercolour
This dramatic piece develops the artist’s characteristic ‘impasto’ technique, creating light by working into the surface to render rough areas of paint smooth and lucent, creating areas of a dreamlike violet within the energetic, almost violent textures of clashing and blending purple and gold.

Landscapes 5: Tado Taisha Chochin Matsuri, 2018, mixed media
This mixed media piece depicts one of Japan’s great Lantern Festivals. Dynamic lines suggest the movement of crowds toward lighted lanterns in the top part of the piece while multiple red circles against the white lower section imply a multiplication of the Japanese flag or of Japan itself. The split background evokes the tension felt by an observing visitor, eager to participate yet separate from and inescapably, as a tourist, objectifying the culture he or she wishes to experience.

Landscapes 4: Container Port, Hudson Bay, NY, 2018, mixed media
Container Port brings the artist’s love of the natural work into sharp focus through a blend of her characteristic watercolour ‘impasto’ with dynamic crayon lines, which leap from the page around the white shapes on the ‘horizon’. The effect is of industrialisation thrown into relief by the lively forces of sky, sea and wind. In our age of globalised late capitalism and widespread industrial pollution it remains a touchingly optimistic vision.

And a bonus — the most unusual work by the artist :)

Oh No, Tiny Ellie, 2018; performance, crochet toy, flannel
In this powerful performance piece, the artist’s repeated, unsuccessful attempts to tuck a small toy under its ‘blanket’ poignantly evoke our ever-present yearning for an always-already-lost place of merging with the caretaking mother, while providing a searing commentary on the contemporary housing crisis.