This article reports on the most recent phase of an ongoing research program that examines the artistic graphic representational behavior and paintings of children between the ages of four and seven. The goal of this research program is to articulate a contemporary account of artistic growth and to illuminate how young children's changing understanding and execution of the graphic representational task lead them to use paint in ways that might be termed "artistic." The multidimensional model of "painting development" presented in this report, informed by the findings of a longitudinal study, describes changes along three parallel but functionally independent dimensions: symbolic intentions, pictorial concepts, and expressive use of material.