Summerfield Stables Workshop 4

U is for Unnatural Nature

Find sticks, moss, bark, and other natural materials and use them as instruments to paint with/make art with. Talk about how using natural vs man-made materials to create art feels.

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The kid's responses

The kids didn't want to simply paint with sticks for this workshop, so we asked them to each find something that looked like it belonged in the natural habitat, and use the man-made materials that we provided to change them so that they would not fit in with the environment.

Most of the kids chose to paint and colour rocks that they had found, using bright colours and even creating faces and personalities. We then decided to go and hide all of our rocks and then so a scavenger hunt to find all the other rocks. Once we got back to the table we discussed why the kids decided to use the colours and patterns that they did.

One of the kids decided to make a paint brush out of pipe cleaners and string. It was really interesting to see that, rather than using the paint brushes we provided, they wanted to make their own using materials they chose. This child then went on to use this brush to paint with, which made very interesting marks and also showed them how to take notice of the practicalities of what they had made as the paint brush became too heavy and limp to use once saturated with paint.