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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

October 12: Fall Leaf Painting


The girls had off from school today for Yom Kippur and were lamenting their bored state because, lo, my husband had a meeting and I had lunch plans with my aunt which meant we couldn't entertain them. (We encouraged them to go out back and play, but for some reason, they felt like moping instead.) Thus, by the time I got home from my lunch, the girls were wired. I decided a nature walk was in order.

It is another beautiful day out there today, so I exchanged my ballet flats for my Saucony's and off we went. I can't say the walk was as lovely as the day--for instance, in the 30 minutes we were out, my older daughter decided it would be a good idea to throw sticks ahead of her and one of them beaned me quite painfully behind the ear; my younger daughter decided she no longer wanted to ride her scooter, and when I said I wouldn't carry it for her, we parked it on the sidewalk and crossed our fingers it would still be there on our return loop (it was); we encountered a stray cat which my older cat-loving daughter immediately picked up despite its unknown disposition or potential fleas. OY. Still, we survived and soaked up some free Vitamin D!

And I collected a bunch of different-shaped leaves for today's project (which I'd originally envisioned as a Saturday activity, but I rotated in today in light of engaging the girls on the day off.)

I saw this idea at Minne-Mama's blog and it reminded me a bit of our fall paintings which came out so well last year, so I wanted to try it.

Fall Leaf Painting

Supplies:

paints and paintbrushes (we used tempera paint today) in red, orange, yellow, and green
canvases (or plain paper)
tape
leaves

Process: 

1. Start by collecting assorted leaves. Fresh ones are best (that is, not dry or crunchy) since we need to tape them to the canvas (or paper) and paint over them.
 
2. Use little pieces of tape rolled up to keep the leaves in place. Put them wherever you like, in whatever direction.




3. Squeeze some paint on a plate or in a leftover container. I used only the 4 colors. The original post only used two colors but I wanted to represent more fall shades. My daughters and I all used the same paints, so they ended up blending and melding to make an ever wider array of fall colors.

4. Paint around the leaves however it pleases you. That might be using gentle outward strokes from the leaves themselves, or it might be painting around them, or some other technique that works for you. There are no rules. Do what you feel like doing. (And, accordingly, let your kids do what they feel like doing, even if you wish they'd just do what you're doing. What? Just me?)


(These look so pretty with the leaves still on there, don't they? Unfortunately, the foliage must be removed because eventually they'll get dry and crusty and fall off and make a mess.)

5. Gently peel off and discard the leaves.

If you use a giant leaf that ends up leaving behind what you deem to be too much white space, feel free to tape a new leaf or two on there in that space and fix it up. Like so.

And if you spent more time painting the actual leaves than the canvas around it and then just spread paint haphazardly on the canvas before deciding you'd like to go play elsewhere in the yard...that's okay too.

We got outside and spent some quality time in the sunshine and fresh air and now have some pretty artwork to celebrate that. Hurrah!

2 comments:

  1. I found this entire post very amusing and related too much to this statement "even if you wish they'd just do what you're doing. What? Just me?" No, not just you! These turned out great and the colors blended so nicely together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol. Birds of a feather! But seriously, why can't they just do what we're doing??? ;-) Hahaha.

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