The Artful Parent: The Intersection of Art and Parenting

Generous amounts of washable, nontoxic tempera paint + bare torsos + encouragement to paint their bodies =

I had set out special face crayons (the kind used on halloween or for face painting) as well but they were completely ignored. Paint was clearly the art material of choice yesterday.

We used a bar of soap, the hose, and the kiddie pool for washing up afterwards.

By the way, I wanted to let you know that Teaching My Little Bookworm has started an Open-Ended Art Wednesday. Each week she’ll post an open-ended art project which you are encouraged to do with your kiddos and post about then add a link on her blog so others can see your work. This week it’s puffy paint, something we’ve had lots of fun with in the past!

Okay, it doesn’t need to be messy. I’m sure if you did this with one or two kids, your table wouldn’t look quite like this. But get a bunch of preschoolers and a couple of toddlers in a room together with paint and this seems to be what I get. The big puddle above is from little Stella, who I need to differentiate from the 3 1/2 year old Stella, below, who has been in our art group forever.

The bowls soaked up a serious amount of tempera paint. I kind of like the look of newsprint peaking through the colors, but I think next time I’ll follow a suggestion from a fellow blogger mama (I forget who, I’m sorry! If you’re reading this, please, please add a comment with a link to the paper maché post you did last week.) and cover the newspaper with a white paper towel as the final layer in the paper maché. That way you’re starting with more of a blank canvas when you start painting. It might also be fun to paint these with acrylics — something I’m not willing to do in a group situation yet.

After these dry completely, I think we’ll add a layer of mod podge or other sealer to help protect the bowls. I had plans for bowl decoration (ribbons, beans, colored tissue paper, etc) in addition to just painting but this was more than enough for the morning.

With preschool over and summer ahead of us, I decided to resurrect the art group for a few months. The kids aren’t toddlers anymore so I can’t call it the toddler art group, although some have toddler (and infant) siblings. We’re calling it the summer art group.

I came across this while deciding what to do for the first meeting, and thought an abstract version of the watercolor resist project might be fun to try. I set out pieces of Con-tact paper, black crayons, and scissors so the kids could draw their own pictures or shapes and cut them out themselves. They then peeled off the backing (with help) and arranged their Con-tact shapes onto cardstock. I was out of watercolor paper so we used poster board cut down.

They then painted over the entire sheet of paper with liquid watercolors. Nathan, above, stuck with the one color look.

His brother Justin worked with the whole palette. See how the Con-tact shapes keep the paint off the paper? Most of the kids outlined the shapes first, like he did above, then filled in the rest of the paper.

Marlise’s pools of watercolor are starting to work their way under her shapes here. I forgot to mention that you need to really press the edges of the Con-tact paper down hard to create a seal before painting. Lifting excess paint with a cloth or paper towel and using real watercolor paper would probably help prevent this as well.

Here Maia and Marlise are peeling the shapes off after the paint has dried.

After lunch (and after the group left), Maia wanted to do some more painting, so we went back to the studio again. I cut out an “M” for her and she did the watercolor initial project in it’s original version.

Then she created her own whole new version of the project by drawing with oil pastels over squares of Con-tact paper, then painting over the whole thing.

And here’s the finished piece after the paint dried and the squares were removed.

Other watercolor resist ideas:

• Use masking tape
• Use stickers
• Draw with crayons or oil pastels (try white and other light colors)
• Draw with a wax candle

Little miss Maia is three now.

I made cupcakes with pink icing per the birthday girl’s request. The cupcakes had apples, applesauce, and walnuts and were super moist and tasty (and quasi healthy). I got the recipe here. The icing is just cream cheese with a little milk and powdered sugar. I think we’ll make these again this fall after going apple picking — skipping the pink tint and sprinkles. Yum.

We combined a low key birthday celebration with our last art group meeting. The kids painted with shaving cream and paint and loved it of course. Our whole house smells like shaving cream now. One father (who shall remain unnamed) took it upon himself to show the kids how shaving cream is really used. Needless to say, we had to wash shaving cream and paint off of several faces and necks later.

And yes, this was the last meeting. We’ve been meeting for two years now and I have loved this group. Loved the kids, the mamas, the art, everything (well, everything but the clean up). But this is a time of change for our family on many fronts. Maia is starting preschool this fall two mornings a week — a completely last minute decision (a week ago!!) but a good one, I think, for all of us. Today is her first day and we are all excited and a little nervous at the same time. Wish us well!

We did string painting with a small art group yesterday. The kids started out by dipping pieces of yarn in paint then dragging it across their paper. This quickly progressed to hand prints and fingerpainting (as often happens these days).

But then I showed them how to make string blots which they really seemed to like doing. We handed them folded over pieces of paper for them to set or arrange their paint covered piece of string on one half, then they folded over the other half of the paper on top of the string and pressed down with their hands. Here’s one of Marlise’s, above.

And one of Maia’s.

Like so many of the activities we do, this one came from one of MaryAnn Kohl’s books, although I can’t remember which at the moment.

This is what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks–ever since my art supplies arrived from Discount School Supply. Liquid watercolors are the best! We’ve been painting with them by using droppers to transfer the paint onto coffee filters which soak up the paint beautifully, allow the colors to blend into each other, and can hold lots of liquid without disintigrating. And when I say we, I mean Maia and me as well as any child who has come into our house lately. We also did this in our art class on Tuesday and our Toddler Art Group yesterday.

Unfortunately I didn’t get around to taking photos until we ran out of coffee filters half way through art group yesterday. But, Justin here had the bright idea of using paper towels which also work really well.

Here’s Thalia’s, above.

I sent families home with pipe cleaners so they could make butterflies with the painted coffee filters (just fold over a pipe cleaner, insert the coffee filter and scrunch it up, then twist the pipe cleaners at the top to hold it in place, leaving a “V” for the antenae).

And we also tore up the painted coffee filters and used them in collages. They turn out really well.

And who do I have to thank for these ideas? Julie Liddle of Art in Hand. I interviewed her a while back for the blog (and will be posting it soon) and she mentioned this was one of her students’ favorite art activities.

And, it turns out that she just published an article on different ways to use liquid watercolors titled Cool Art for Hot Summer Days. Check it out. If I haven’t convinced you you need to buy some liquid watercolors, she will.

We did some marble rolling with the Toddler Art Group yesterday. I had a bag of marbles that we had picked up at a yard sale a couple of years ago along with those wooden blocks that you can build a marble run with. I had put the marbles away, until now, because of the choking hazard (Maia used to put everything in her mouth). But I remembered the marbles and have been wanting to try rolling them with paint. This is Nathan’s painting, above.

I got out our cake pans, pie pans, and baking dishes and cut paper to fit. I placed a bowl of marbles on the table as well as cups of paint and spoons (for fishing the marbles out of the paint cups). I’ve seen this activity around, but got the specifics from MaryAnn Kohl’s Scribble Art.

Here’s Justin, rolling his paint covered marble around the cake pan. Little brother Nathan is watching. (Nathan is still in the oral stage, but we watched him closely, and he was able to enjoy the marble fun.)

Vivi found another use for the cups of paint.

I think they all enjoyed the activity! It was easy and fun. Have you tried it? You can use larger balls too. I was just thinking how fun it would be with playground-size balls and one of those little kiddie pools. Not sure where you’d get a piece of paper big enough, though…

Thanks to Rachel for taking photos yesterday!

We did the watercolors and saran wrap project with the art group yesterday. This is Thalia’s, above.

We had some success using bubble wrap in place of the saran wrap. This one is Nathan’s. I think I prefer the randomness of the saran wrap designs although this is fun, too. Next time I might cut out small pieces of various sized bubble wrap (big bubbles, small bubbles) rather than one large sheet of bubble wrap.

And here’s one Maia did with the back of the bubble wrap. I also brought out drinking straws and rubber bands to lay across the watercolors for different effects, but the kids were ready to move on after the saran wrap and bubble wrap. Maybe next time.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Henry and his family. They’ve been part of the art group since the very beginning, but are now heading off to other parts of the country for a few months while his Daddy does some training. We’ll miss them! Henry’s wearing my happy traveling gift–a truck t-shirt for a boy who loves trucks.