Colour Stories with Children

"A Party with Glowing  Red, Shining Yellow & Deep Blue"

Watercolour, 8"x10" Workshop Demonstration for the kids:)
View photos of workshop at the bottom of this post.

Here's the story:  

"One day tippy paintbrush got out of his blanket ( terry cloth for mopping excess water off tippy) and cleaned  his feet in a warm bath (clean water jar).  He was so happy because it was a beautiful day and he couldn't wait to go outside and play with the warm  sun.

So tippy dipped his feet in shining yellow and the sun came to play.

The sun danced here and shone there and tippy(the paintbrush) moved his feet around and around. 

This made tippy feel so happy and wonderful and warm inside. 

He dipped his feet again and again and the sun was shining so brightly.

(the paper is getting yellow) 

Then tippy decided to call on his friend glowing red and ask him to come play so tippy washed his feet and dried them on his towel which he always does before he visits another friend and then he dipped his feet into glowing red and they all went outside to play in the sun.  Red jumped here and danced there and held yellow's hand as they ran  across the meadow.  Glowing Red and Shining Yellow  were the best of friends  and so they decided to ask deep blue, and to their surprise orange and purple came out to play too, ...

and so  the story goes......"

On Friday, I did 2 one-hour long workshops with children Age: 6 and under.  The youngest about 2 and a half.  The classes were held at the local recreation centre and I have to tell you it was the highlight of my week (maybe even the month!)

This class is not about producing pictures or showing children the right way to paint: it is about the sensory experience of a young child playing creatively with paint.

 Pure watercolour pigments are pre-mixed in small white custard bowls, 140 lbs  cold pressed arches watercolour paper pre-soaked in water - painting wet on wet. 

They are given big brushes and mason glass jars of water so they can see the colour come out of the brush when they rinse it. 

All the materials are of the same quality that an artist would use. 

The children tell their own stories there is no right or wrong way. Some  just went back and forth with one colour only and watched the paint move others put colours side by side and mixed them on the paper.  They use their own imagination and the colours tell their own story to them, a wonderfully creative experience for children.

 I  would love to do more workshops like this and do them for adults too!
 Tippy is not my creation but used by a Waldorf teacher I viewed on YouTube.
Rudolf Steiner who created the Waldorf School used Goethe's colour theory and all the concepts used above are from this philosophy.

The later class had children aged 5 and 6 and a few of the moms were present.  These moms expressed an interest in painting with their children so we set them up and they did it too! We all had a lot of fun.