Saturday, July 31, 2010

Painting with marbles


Recently I came across a post over on Let the children play that showed paintings children had done with marbles, however I couldn't find the exact post to link to, sorry:(
I love painting personally, although I rarely get to a canvas now that I have small children, so I always love a project that brings out the paints. This was a really satisfying fun and messy project, so we took it into the yard. Painting with marbles within a frame creates a very Pollock like painting and shows children a different approach to painting and creativity than a brush.
We started with a blank canvas, I imagine any paintable surface would work, like a piece of wood, even card stock paper, if using paper if would have to lay on a firm bottom though, a tray perhaps.
Then I taped cardboard around the sides, use some stronger tape to keep the sides secure while rolling the marbles.

I lined a wooden bowl with foil and added acrylic paints.
Keenan picked 3 marbles from his collection
We put one marble at a time into a paint color, and laid it on the canvas. With Keenan holding one side and I the other we then moved the marbles around within the frame. Once the marbles ran dry we dipped them again and continued. After a while I did add some paint directly to the canvas as we kept rolling the marbles around in the colors. Keenan was quite amazed at the patterns this whole process created, and took his task very seriously.
And after perhaps twenty minutes of rolling the marbles we decided the picture was finished.
Keenan was very proud of his creation.

Clean up was easy. The paint on the marbles washed right off, the foil with left over paint we discarded, and that was it. Simple and fun!!
~Happy creating~

15 comments:

  1. Now this we just have to do! The final picture was awesome - it looks like the sort of thing that people would pay good money for.
    And the serious look on K's face is priceless.
    A very inspiring post.
    Oh, and I have read about this recently on both "let The Children Play' and 'Teacher Tom' Blogs, so maybe it came from one of those? A great idea, and you explained it really well.

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  2. gorgeous finished product! sounds like you both very into it and that just makes it so much more fun!

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  3. It's great idea. Love it. I bet the kids were having a blasttttttt! Congratulations to the artists. LOVE U ALL

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  4. Such an increibly beautiful piece of art. The colours are so vivid and lush!
    We have made these marble pictures too. But on a slightly smaller scale :)
    Now the weather is warmer there is a perfect excuse to take the girls outside and paint some nice good sized canvases.
    Thank you for the inspiration!

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  5. This is such a simple and wonderful idea. I can't wait to try it with my little guy, I know he'll love it. Thanks for such a great project.

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  6. that looks like so much fun! and the result is fantastic- very jackson pollock-esque:)

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  7. great job you guys. Awesome work Keenan!

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  8. such a lovely idea and on canvas too!
    I have done this with my children but used golf balls and silver paint. they make great cobwebs on black paper and the dimpled texture from the balls added to it!
    I am new to your blog and just wondering through your posts. Loving what i'm seeing
    Pipx
    http://wormseye-view.blogspot.com

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  9. What a great finished piece! I will have a go at this with my girls, I would be thrilled to hang that on my walls - it's just wonderful. I've seen it done before on paper, but on a canvas it really come to life. x

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  10. We did this today while at home with sick sick. They LOVED it. Have written about it in todays post.
    http://myown-twohands.blogspot.com/2010/08/marble-art.html

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  11. Oh Christina I love it! Very chuffed that you did something you found on my blog :)

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  12. Awesome work!!!!! It would make a great center piece for any home!!!!! Love it!!!

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  13. I posted a comment yesterday but it didn't show up. We did this last night and it was a blast. Thanks for sharing! We want to buy mini canvases and make some as gifts! Your blog is great, glad I found it :) (I found it from Let the Children Play on Facebook)

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  14. The colors are perfect, we love simple! Very nice job :-)

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  15. I posted about the marble painting that we made. Thanks again :)
    http://www.lifeglutenfree.com/mama_baby_gluten_free/2010/08/marble-paintings.html

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