Process Art in Nature: Rain Painting with Kids
It was a gray rainy day, a little warmer then it has been, with the temps in the 40s. I had a little guy fighting a cold and a toddler needing a change of pace. What to do? Find a creative way to use that weather to our advantage, make something, and get outside. We set out to see if we could paint with the rain.
I remembered reading something at one point about using the small watercolor cakes as dry paint, to be activated be the rain. So we set to work, popping the individual watercolor cakes out of their plastic casing and sticking them into separate plastic baggies. Then the fun part...we got out a plastic hammer and smashed them into powered paint. This definitely got the kids excited!
We didn't really know how this was going to work but we were happy to be making something and very intrigued by the process. I figured if we poured the powdered paints onto a heavyweight paper and then left it in the rain, something cool was bound to happen, right? And happen it did!
As you can see, the kids simply sprinkled / poured the smashed watercolor paints onto the paper. My preschooler chose to use a page that had a previous charcoal drawing he had done. He also spent a more time arranging colors on the page before heading out. Whereas my toddler was most excited about using the hammer and the potential puddle splashing she was about to engage in.
Once we got outside we set the papers on the wet cement with a few rocks on the corners in case the wind kicked up. Wow!, is all I have to say after that. Each raindrop that hit the page created another beautiful burst of color. The dry chunks of paint turned into gorgeous pools of color that began moving and merging across the paper.
Our experiment was a success! The only thing that was a bit tricky was transporting these wet paintings, with pools of color, into the house. I laid a piece of painters drop cloth down inside and laid them there to dry. In hindsight a little blue painters tape and a couple cookie sheets probably would have made the transfer indoors a lot easier! So if you try this, I would give that a thought before racing out the door like we did. : )
All in all, such a gratifying process and a burst of color on a rainy day. The kids were so intrigued by the transformation too as they watched the rain make art! Always a win in my book when nature and art come together.
