Art Together: "Frozen" Mixed Medium Paintings on Canvas

If given the opportunity, Y would probably paint all day long. Give him a brush, a stick, a sponge or just his own two hands and he's one happy dude as long as there's paint involved. He'll probably ask for a "samock" [smock] to go with it... Y goes through phases of liking to paint and being less drawn to that medium. I like to include process art opportunities at home working with plenty of mediums. I also know the value in open ended exploration of high quality art materials, so I do include supplies like real canvas, quality acrylic and watercolor paints, "real" brushes, oil pastels, chalks, clay and more. When I saw how teacher Sally Haughey of Fairy Dust Teaching used a collaborative art activity with her preschool class to capture her students' interest in the motion picture "Frozen," I was inspired! Over the course of several days, she introduced a large canvas and a variety of painting mediums and loose parts for her students to work together and create a truly chilling masterpiece.

I love the idea of stretching out an art experience over more than one day. I think that so many times when it comes to creative work and art with children, we push a "deadline" and "production" mentality. This does not honor the time it may take to fully experience and explore materials and it does not value the child's process in that. For some children, this may become apparent when they have difficulty transitioning from a project. For others, it may manifest as a lack of interest in beginning or staying with an art activity. Different children feel differently about art and require different amounts of time. Additionally, they may be more drawn to certain mediums than others--especially if sensory preferences come into play. One thing I do believe universally is that children engage more with the experience of exploring art when we join in. So while I opted to provide separate canvases for each artist involved rather than to collaborate on one, I did make this an "Art Together" activity here--one where we would all sit (myself included) and work on the project each day. Both boys (and I!) came to look forward to adding the next step each day and watching the paintings transform. The experience was incredible and the finished results were museum worthy! Here's a peek at our process:

Day 1: We used acrylic paints in a variety of cool colors and some textured sponge roller brushes on canvas. Each of us had a recycled sushi tray with paints lined up side by side. We mixed, rolled, dipped and rolled again. S, usually a minimalist, filled his canvas from corner to corner with colorful layers of paint. Y, usually a page filler, restricted his work to the center of the canvas, leaving the borders white.

 Day 2: This time, I set out six sectioned pallets with purple and blue tempera paint and black and white on either side. I provided Q-tip brushes, and the boys were encouraged to mix colors, shades and hues as they desired. S loved using the Q-tip to make squiggles and dots. Y started off with the Q-tip, but transitioned to his fingers. S, who often does not like to finger paint, did want to try it that day, and used his finger as well to make dots, then covering them up with more lines and squiggles. I tried both methods, making Q-tip dots on one corner and finger squiggles coming down from the opposite corner.

While S is often averse to getting "hands on" in paint, he was
inspired by Y. Having wet washcloths at the ready can help
a sensory sensitive artist feel more comfortable to explore.

Day 3: If there's anything I love just about as much as process art, it's loose parts. And the two of those combined are a match made in heaven! The only thing that could possibly make that an even more desirable combo for my little guys is the addition of glue. Yes, glue! Today, our "paint" was concocted of glue and food coloring. A sectioned tray was set up with a variety of small glass gems, silver hex nuts, and beads--all in wintry shades. Each artist was given a cup filled 2/3 full with clear gel glue and a wooden craft stick for mixing. Each artist also got to choose a color to add and small loose parts to mix in. I love using recycled plastic fruit cups for this as they are translucent for easy viewing and the perfect size for "portion control." We mixed our "ingredients" in the cups and poured, drizzled, scraped, spread and sprinkled the concoctions over our canvases.

I really loved watching how they mixed, poured and got hands in and hands on with this step. We worked slowly and intentionally. We didn't worry about being sticky or getting messy (smocks and a disposable tablecloths help with this). Nobody worried or fought about not having "enough" materials because the cups really helped designate a space for what we needed. I am actually quite happy I captured a few moments on film during which S remarked that the glue concoction reminded him of jelly. I quickly turned off the camera just as Y thought S meant it actually was jelly and then wiped a lovely shade of purple sticky goo from his bottom lip!

Day 4: Oh, is it ever wistful when good things come to an end, but at least the "end" of this art experience will leave us with a lasting souvenir. On the final day of our painting, we each mixed a small recycled cup of white school glue with glitter in blue, white and silver.There were wooden craft sticks and wide paintbrushes for everyone to use. S was the first to mix his "paint" and then Y. S asked if he could pour his paint again and I said he could. Y opted to use his craft stick to spread and scrape it on. I tried pouring, drizzling and then brushing thinner layers over flat spaces and edges. And what's the only thing in the world that's better than glitter? Why, more glitter, of course! S asked for more glue and glitter and then asked if he could also sprinkle glitter over the top of his painting. I love being able to say yes and on this day, "Yes" was brought to you by a disposable tablecloth we've used again and again for almost a year. I knew that I could roll it up and toss it when we finished and before I knew it, we were all three eagerly shaking glitter over our canvases.

I'm pretty impressed with the finished results (even though in the photo collage above, the glue is still drying). But even more than my joy in seeing these on display in our home is the joy I got in creating them together. I really look forward to concocting and creating some more family masterpieces together in the future. I also especially love this article with 5 Paint Invitations to Embrace the Explore Stage for more ideas on how to encourage and introduce painting to young artists at home or in the classroom. This was such a fun addition to our Winter Break Playcamp and we will be back next week to share some more fabulous story stretchers with you. Until then...

Happy playing!