Irresistible Art

Art Journal Cover

Art making is irresistibly fun, especially when you approach it with childlike wonder.

When you let yourself play with paints and sprays and inks.  

You splash and fling paint without caring in the least where it's going to land.

You stamp and stencil.

You scrape and make marks with whatever you can find.

It's full of color and it's an active, messy process.

It pulls kids away from the TV and video games.  It makes them curious to see what you're up to.  

But beware, once you travel down this road, you may not be able to get them out of your art supplies...

The Art Journal Cover above began with layering sheets from my daughter's old band music.  I applied it with a gel medium (I like Golden's but you can also use Mod Podge or a glue stick).

You then cover up the plain old white paper with whatever color paint you like.  You can use spray inks (Dylusions and Heidi Klapp make fun sprays) and basic craft paints in colors you like.

I like mixing inks and paints to see what happens and then I keep building layers by stamping, stenciling, dripping, scratching, smearing paint and having a grand time. 

Each painting is a little experiment. I never plan out what it will look like-I just keep happily building the layers until I feel done.  Which is why it's perfect for kids.

The one "rule" to avoid making mud is to keep your cool colors like blues and greens (the colors of winter) away from your warm, summer colors of orange, yellows and reds.  I usually work in layers of cools and let it dry-then do a layer of warm colors.

We have painting parties when friends and kids come over to get their hands in some paint. There is no pressure and no instruction.  Just get some paint, something to paint on and begin!