Painting spring flowers
My children love painting, they get very excited when I suggest we get the paints out, so when I heard about the Center Parcs and Tots100 challenge of painting flowers, I knew they’d love to take part.
I read Emma Hull’s tips for getting creative and was inspired by her suggestion to “Find materials around the house to add to the painting, giving it a 3D effect.”
I wanted to try something different, as we’re always using poster paints, brushes and fingers, so here’s what we got up to……
On our walk home from dropping big brother off at school, the girls were admiring the daisies in the grass. They kept stopping to pick them, so I thought why not? We enjoyed looking for the daisies with their petals open and selecting a little (ish!) collection. Needless to say, our walk home today took a lot longer than usual, however, it made a nice change to actually make something of an otherwise boring walk.
Once home, the children immediately wanted to get painting. I set up some watercolour paints outside on an old toddler table with chairs, some water (in non spill pots), paint, brushes, wipes (essential!), paper, pencils and I made a clipboard for them so the paper wouldn’t blow away. Next I put a pot of small daffodils on the table.
When they saw what I’d set up for them, they were delighted, they giggled and jumped around excitedly.
I asked them to look closely at the daffodils, look at their shapes, circles, triangles etc and try to draw what they saw. This is the first time we have sat down together and tried to draw something in front of us. I made an attempt at drawing the daffodils too, to give them an example of what they could do (I am not an artist though, so haven’t included my picture here). This is how they got on with our homemade art lesson……
I love the concentration tongue in this picture above! They look so engrossed in their little challenge. They totally embraced. I think it made them feel quite grown up.
They were extremely pleased with their drawings and very proud of them. I must confess, I was amazed at how well they did. They actually took account of my suggestions to find shapes in the daffodils and their drawings looked fantastic! I really had no idea they could draw that well (only when they put their mind to it though of course!).
Next, I introduced them to watercolour paints. In the past we have only ever used poster paints, as they are easy to use and convenient, but I wanted to show them a different way of painting. At first they struggled to get enough paint on the brush, but after assisting them for a bit they soon got the hang of it and loved the fact that there were so many colours to choose from.
They used the paints to paint the daffodils in the shapes, just like they had just been drawing. Again, they did fantastically well and I think they do actually look like daffodils!
Pinky wanted to paint the flowers in a garden. She painted the grass, sky and sun, but rather than painting the flowers in it, she placed lots of our daisy collection along the grass. This I thought made a fantastic picture! It really did bring the whole painting to life!
Once they had finished admiring their pictures, they started experimenting with the daisies and painting them. This was a lot of fun, so I suggested we take it a step further and use the daisies to print. It got a bit messy, but they loved mixing nature with paint and exploring what patterns they could make.
All in all, we had a really lovely morning, properly painting and creating art in a way we had never tried before and thoroughly delighted in it. It is amazing how much fun you can have with some paints, pencils and a tub of daffodils and daisies. The final pictures are not the important part. It’s all about the fun, exploration, experimentation, learning and creativity in the process of creating the picture that matters.
‘This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots 100 March challenge. If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Longleat Forest’
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Look at those faces! Concentrating hard to capture the plants/flowers beauty =)
#countrykids
They were totally engrossed!
I love the daisies on the painting. Lovely enthusiastic painters there. Good luck with the center parc challenge and thank you for sharing your outdoor fun on #CountryKids.
Thank you, they really did enjoy it
Love how activities always become more where children are concerned. Experimenting with what they have. The concentration on their faces. I bet you’ll be taking your clip boards out again. #CountryKids
Yes, I think we may have to try this again in the summer with some different flowers etc
“It is amazing how much fun you can have with some paints, pencils and a tub of daffodils and daisies. The final pictures are not the important part. It’s all about the fun, exploration, experimentation, learning and creativity in the process of creating the picture that matters.” – Yes yes yes – and your final pictures are lovely. I really like the ones with the daisies stuck on the painted landscape.
Thank you. I liked the daisies pictures best too
Beautiful and this has transported me back to my childhood too-will get the kids to pick some daisies as we’ve not thought of sticking real flowers to pictures #whatsthestory
Thank you, I hope you have fun too
These look so effective. I love the concentration an they’ve created fab paintings. I like the idea of using the daisies to paint, too. Good luck!
Thank you, they really did get thoroughly engrossed in it
What a great idea and fantastic artwork! Love the photos too! Xx
Thank you x
Oh wow how brilliant. I love the daffodil and the daisies too, just lovely. What a wonderful thing to do. Hope you had a lovely weekend. Thank you for sharing #whatsthestory
Thanks, it was lovely
Lovely idea and I too love the tongue sticking out in concentration.
Yeah, I love that pic too
Aww how lovely, their paintings are fab! xxx
Thank you x
They really do look engrossed in their work – some fantastic drawings and paintings!
Thank you, they really did enjoy it
Some great ideas there, lovely pictures too x
Thank you, they were fun to do and learn from