Summer Painting

It is Tuesday and time to write a 'Slice of Life." 
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Just like that, the summer ends. My oldest granddaughter, Frog, has begun her prek-4 school year and we are back to our Monday/Tuesday babysitting for only one child – her younger sister. Bird turns three years old this fall, which is too late to start her preschool year in DC public schools.

We are missing ‘big sister’ on these babysitting days, though it is also really special to have one-on-one time with the little one.

Let me share an update on our summer art project; my granddaughters turned some old kitchen cabinet doors into paint canvases, making layers of fun. These doors went through a real  metamorphosis!

Each girl had their own door to paint, and they worked with acrylic. I made sure to dress them to be messed, and we worked outside as much as possible. We had a bit of yucky weather that kept us inside once or twice, but I was able to set up their art in our basement, using lots of dropcloths – plus, keeping soapy water and wash rags at the ready.  

We began with ‘tape painting.’ The girls applied painters tape to the door, covering the doors in all sorts of different ways with painters tape and then painting. They used a variety of brushes and rollers. When the paint dried, they peeled off the tape – creating wild designs. Then it was time for more tape and a new paint color. Repeat, as needed! 

Our grand finale technique was “splatter painting.” Here, I added shower caps to their protective attire, hoping to keep the acrylic paint from their hair. The girls dipped brushes into new colors of paint and then let this fly through the air to the canvas.

Frog laughed and squealed throughout – which is exactly the reaction I expected. She had so much fun with this splatter paint technique, I found a bonus door for her to paint:

Did you notice that I only have pictures of Frog with the splatter paint? Bird was wide-eyed with horror at this painting technique. I don’t know what worried her –  was it the shower cap? The wild, large motion? The fact that she is potty-training and this was just TOO messy? She was thrilled to play with the bucket of soapy water, but she refused to splatter paint. She sat back in the sandbox and directed her older sister to add paint to her door!! Oh, this made me smile. Isn’t this what all the great mural artists do? Hire assistants to help, to follow their expectations and guidelines?

All this fun painting led to some nature painting, as well. The girls painted on a backyard tree, just for the whimsy of it. Bright paint ended up unexpectedly on the grass and weeds nearby. Without a doubt, the backyard was the perfect location for this fun. And, oh yes, there were various stages of undress during some of the painting…whoops! lol

The doors look wonderful, I think. If we get a school holiday and weather permits, we’ll squeeze in some creative drawing with acrylic markers, letting the girls add additional details to the doors.  Here are the final creations:

We had a fun summer! I hope you did, too.

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