Laura Caldarola and José R. Pastrana are very lucky to have a talented son like Leonardo. But Leonardo is even luckier to have parents who are so devoted to their children’s creativity and love.
When we visited the family, the youngest, Orlando (less than a year old) is recovering from pneumonia that has kept him hospitalized for several days.
Leonardo, the artist of the family, with his 4 years of age, encourages him, plays with him, holds his little hand and makes him smile.
LAURA: She was never jealous of her little brother (says Laura, influencer, blogger, former stylist and mum 2.0, as she defines herself in her Instagram). He is affectionate and has exceptional patience.
Each person is different and Leo is sensitive, notices everything and has a maturity that makes him obedient even when playing tennis.
Leonardo runs, jumps, climbs, descends and paints.
But Leonardo is not a quiet or introverted child; on the contrary: he runs from one place to another, takes refuge in his father’s or mother’s lap, plays with Lego pieces and runs up and down the stairs of his house in the center of Madrid at full speed?
José (who is an architect) explains: JOSE: We realized that he had a talent for painting when he started drawing little faces on the blackboard in his room.
And it’s not a matter of giving him a pen and having him paint… it’s more that we motivate him a lot to do it.
I am aware of what he knows and what he doesn’t know, what he learns at school… And I start painting with him and suggest him to make another bigger size or to draw new things.
Every day is a different story… And well… we spend many hours at home!
LAURA: Of course, we respect school education, but we do not work on creativity, learning is traditional and old-fashioned.
At home we compensate this notion, living art from the feeling.
It is impossible to have the freshness of children, the experience we adults have prevents us from doing so.
The education I received in this sense has affected me negatively, I do not see myself capable of doing something with as much freedom as children.
PLOM: As much freedom as Leonardo? LAURA: Yes.
Children should be allowed to interact with the environment, to be active.
Superheroes, the Eiffel Tower and a lot of cranes.
Leonardo draws, in fact, with total freedom on large and small canvases, with a palette of colors that are sometimes bright and sometimes dull.
Sometimes he paints over a previous painting, or takes 2 months to finish a work.
He draws objects as varied as tools or the Eiffel Tower or the whole of Paris, because they talked about it at school.
And also monsters, robots, superheroes and even a series on cranes! 
Leonardo has a
Instagram which for now is managed by his father: JOSE: We started to collect all his drawings and as there was big format, small format, paper, canvas… we started to take pictures to save his works, and every time he looked in his cell phone for one, there were other personal pictures in between, so finally we decided to save them and share them on Instagram.
A phenomenon on Instagram
Laura, despite being professionally dedicated to communication and networks, clarifies: LAURA: I would not like my children to dedicate themselves to image projection, to be influencers.
They are used to smile if you take a picture of them, but this is the general tone at home: We raise them with love, security and smiles, not as an empty facade.
Laura explains that, although she likes her job, she didn’t look for it, but the job found her, and she feels very fortunate to be able to see her children grow up and combine it professionally.
In addition, she has a very close and positive relationship with her followers, probably because she shows herself as she is, with closeness and affection, as she is in family.
How else would an artist like Leonardo flourish? 
Art born of encouragement
JOSE: We put a lot of effort because he is interested, but in the end the key word is “stimulate”. It is clear that in this house they know what stimulating is.
When we ask Leonardo his favorite color, he says “red and yellow” without hesitation . At school they tell him that the worst colors are brown and black, but he, at 4 years old, is clear that the one he doesn’t like is purple.
His parents would love to have a “branch” of PLOM in Madrid, and when we ask them how they would like it to be, they discuss it with Leonardo and all three agree that there should be a slide.
We take note!
Text Diana Aller Photos María Blanco Brotons Outfit by Leonardo, Orlando and Laura Tinycottons
From Plom Gallery we are preparing something very nice with Leonardo and his incredible drawings.
Soon we will tell you about it.
We want you to participate!
