Experimenting: Pour Painting

Tall paintings seem to be trending at the moment

They were popping up all over my news feed on Facebook

I had initially saw tall painting on MaryAnn F. Kohl's blog

(BTW, if you don't know who she is you need to)

then I saw it here on Teacher Tom's blog

then it was like a massive tall painting bomb exploded all over Facebook

I couldn't even tell you where it started from because everybody was posting and reposting 

I had decided (after seeing it the first time) that I wasn't going to try with the girls because I didn't think they were old enough

but 

I broke down and decided to give it a whirl

and we gave it a little twist

So I bought foam-core board and wanted to cut it into neat little squares because I wanted to have mini tall paintings to display in the house or give to grandparents

I'm pretty sure I'm the worst foam-core board cutter in the world

If you do this use a metal ruler!

Someone somewhere (if you know who let me know so I can link up) suggested using interior house paint

All the other posts seem to have used a thickened tempera

I really didn't want to do that

when I saw the house paint idea a lightbulb clicked in my head

my garage is leftover house paint heaven

I love to paint walls

(easiest way to change the mood of a room!)

so I have a lot left over from various projects and have the perfect colors from a playroom I did many moons ago

I had disposable cups on my shopping list but somehow forgot them 

so I used these bottles

I think the bottles worked perfectly because they helped keep the paint in long enough for Miss C to position the tip over the top of the block

and

I used styrofoam blocks

I went looking for wood but didn't find any

so I decided to get styrofoam instead

Styrofoam turned out to work perfectly too

Surprise!

We tried a cone too!!

The first comment out of C's mouth was

"It looks like a volcano!"

Surprise again!

We tried 3 styrofoam blocks on one board!

C claimed the tallest one

I did the middle one

Little A did the smallest one

C helped A do the smallest one

:)

I see a face! Do you see it!!??

Wait...now I see a bird!

 The tall paintings were a bigger success than I thought they would be!

I already have plans for a larger scale more permanent display.

We really had fun watching the colors run down the sides onto the board

I think the cone turned out the best because the paint covered the sides really well without using a lot of paint

I can't wait to see what they look like when they dry 

they were still spreading after I took these pictures

I hope you give tall painting a try!

This post linked to:

Play Academy
hosted by
NutureStore

High Paw
hosted by
Best Toys for Toddlers

We Play
hosted by
Childhood 101