Our Ocean Paintings
The Unplugged Theme of OCEAN this week comes at a perfect time. In about a month we will be spending some time at the ocean. We have been reading ocean books and learning all we can about the sea. I love the art work in so many children’s books. Two artists I really like are Leo Lionni and Eric Carle. THE ART OF ERIC CARLE and the book ARTIST TO ARTIST 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art, are excellent books that talk about and/or show the artists at work.
Another book we read was SWIMMY by Leo Lionni. We looked closely at the pictures and tried to figure out how Lionni made them. Then tried out some of our ideas in our own ocean pictures.
Looks like doilies!
Molly also used bubble wrap and “paintbrush hair” to add some texture to her work. She also made a fish stencil so that all of her fish would look alike.
Inevitably the painting turned into to finger paint and 5 year olds have their own ideas. Ginger started her painting by cutting out a red fish shape, gluing it down and calling it “swimmy.” The next time I looked their were sunshines and and words and hearts in her ocean. Taking a deep breath I had to remember it’s the process not the product that’s important!!
This was the first time we used acrylic paints. Molly really liked the coverage and control she felt with these as well as the clean finish.
Picture books are a great jumping off point for so many activities. I have a few other ideas to share soon.
Tags: acrylic paints, art of eric carle, Artist, artists at work, bubble wrap, doilies, excellent books, fish shape, leo lionni, ocean books, Paint, Paints, picture books, pictures, red fish
those are wonderful!
adorable wee fishies.
I really miss the time when the kids were little and we spent so much time finger painting and just playing with the paint. Now Beth is doing more serious drawings and her art form has turned to designing clothes. Thomas does still enjoy when we get the paint out but his attention span is much shorter for art projects, he’s more of a wham-bam it’s done kinda person.
Ooooo, love, love, love sea pics. Beauties for sure!
These are amazing!!!
Wonderful! I love the idea of using picture book art as a jumping off point for trying different techniques. By the way, I know what you mean about remembering its “the process” that counts. There are times I have to bite my perfectionist tongue, reign myself in and let them have at it however they want!
found you from mara’s mother of all trips and i LOVE this post! i think we’ll do this this week – thanks for sharing such lovely, creative art!