Animals & Monster Paintings

With the financial support of Pat O’Neill’s Poetry Readings, we were able to fund Free Friday’s with Kids Art every week.  The kids ranged from 5-12 years old and they had a blast. The first week we did shadow boxes and used a picture book from the library.  The kids made up a story that went with their own original art. It was a great success and every child wrote a story.

We worked with just black paint to expand their imaginations and with some other items, they made a monster or an animal.  Each child  told a creative story about their painting, even a little 3 year old told her story, she was so shy and cute!

We ventured into watercolors and sprinkled them with salt to get little star shapes and moved some saran wrap around them. This was the beginning of our underwater lake/ocean scene.  I was amazed when they drew a star fish, treasure chests, jelly fish, a shark and more. They liked using the water color pencils too.  Each brave soul stood in front of the group and shared a story about their work. There’s nothing like the wild imaginations of children. On Friday we look forward to their smiles and enthusiasm.

One week the kids also made a small driftwood mobile. I admit it was a bit more challenging than I thought, most of the moms and caregivers helped finish them up, but the kids loved them all.  Again, many great ideas and their willingness to take a little direction made these mobiles all beautiful and unique.

We kept adding and improving our ideas for the kids art program.  They loved the 3-in-1 painting with glow-in-the-dark paint, bright neon colors and some RIT dye that took on a neat purplish/blue cast under a backlight.  During the day the painting looks different than at night while the third looked magical under a black light. Claire Edwards, an art student studying at Lawrence University did a great job with that program.

Pat O’Neill has graciously agreed to sponsor our Free Friday Kids Art Program again in 2013.  We have wonderful new ideas, materials and books purchased for this art and writing program.  Practice up on your poetry and be sure to buy a ticket to Pat O’Neill’s next poetry reading.  See you next spring/summer (2013) when we start classes again.