Watercolor Scribbles

 

For our last day of Creative Art Play class we were hoping to head outside to look for natural art supplies and enjoy a picnic, but mother nature had other plans, so we set up a indoor picnic instead.   The slight change in plans worked out well as I recently picked up a new book and was excited to share with the kids.

Scribble,  a book by Canadian author Ruth Ohi, tells the story of a square, triangle and circle that meet a zany, whimsical and adventurous scribble.  At first hesitant, they eventually embark on a series of imaginative adventures with scribble and realize that when they work together, they can create some pretty amazing things.

After hearing about all the new adventures that square, circle, triangle and scribble got up to, I invited the children to continue the adventure with their own scribble drawings, using glue, salt and liquid watercolor on watercolor paper.

Some exciting scribble drawings and stories developed.

After adding a sprinkle* of salt to the glue lines (*sprinkle-size was relative in this case 😉  children began dipping their paintbrushes into liquid watercolors and dabbing color onto the glue.

Some brilliantly colored lines started to take shape, and as with most art explorations the discoveries were aplenty.  Watching the colors spread and move on the salty glue lines was magical.   Noticing that if the paintbrush was pushed too hard into the glue, colors wouldn’t spread, and the discovery of watching what new color was created when two came together to mix was exciting.

A super fun morning together!

There are two more spots available in the next round of Creative Art Play classes, starting at the end of March.  Come join us!

Advertisements

Outdoor Painting

It was a balmy 12 degrees yesterday morning so we decided to take the art outdoors for yesterday’s Creative Art Play class!

 

I set up two painting stations which the children were excited to try and let loose on.

On the deck I set out a couple box lids with paper and bright neon tempera paint with   marbles and cars so children could explore with rolling the paint around to create interesting lines and textures.

The fence acted as a great backdrop to set up our canvas and paper and there was a variety of unique materials on hand to dip into the paint and make our mark!  Balloons, fly swatters, spatulas, sticks, leaves, rollers, sponges and a even a plunger were our tools for moving paint around and the children had no lack of imagination in putting them to good use!

Our grass even got a good dose of color – some lovely neon circles decorated our yard!

 

Chalk Drawing Explorations

 

At a recent Creative Art Play class we decided to play around with a few colors of chalk, black paper and water.  The explorations started with questions about what to do but soon, children were off and running with many, many ideas.

The simple joy of creating marks on black paper left all of the children pretty impressed and excited to rub and scribble over the whole sheet.  Then… the water. First a dip, then a pour and some pretty loud ‘oooohs and ahhhhs’.

There was some trading of colored chalk and dripping of wet chalk paint onto the trays creating some neat designs.

A fantastic example creative exploration and discovery at its best!