Passion for plants and paints

This is an art class involving two of my favourite topics: plants and paints! 

We're used to drawing plants from the ground up - but that's only half the picture, isn't it? Plants have roots which aren't less beautiful and just as diverse as the plant leaves themselves. Take a look at how well the children observed and drew their versions of the different roots and leaves. They first made a draft with pencil and then coloured the soil around the roots in, which was quite a challenge being a negative image!

Another amazing fact about these paintings is that the soil is actually painted with brown pigments retrieved from the earth, and that the leaves are actually painted with the green juice of leaves and grass! I will tell you about the recipe for these paints in my next blog entry - stay tuned:-)

Mix it yourself!

These botanical paintings originated from two art sessions: one day we only drew roots of plants and the surrounding soil, the other day we did the stems and leaves of the plants. All you need to make the colours involved in these paintings is: soil, green leaves and an egg!

For the green: collect leaves and grass and put it all in a blender. Mix thoroughly with as little water as possible (not to thin down the chlorophyll pigments). Then sieve through a mesh - you receive a green juice which you can use for painting right away. Note: this colour is not light proof as the green from the chlorophyll will fade into a more brownish green (same as dry leaves:-)

For the brown: dig up some soil and add water until you get a nice brown mud pudding. Let it sit for a while to allow heavier particles (e.g. stones) to sink down. Scoop up the top of your mud pudding and sieve it through a mesh. The finer the mesh the smaller the pigments, which results in smoother paint. To make the soil stick to the paper, add one egg as a binder and mix thoroughly. E voilà! Use as thick paint or thin down with water if you want a lighter tone. 

This is such a fun class! Children really enjoy being out in nature, observing, collecting, digging, sieving, mixing and getting dirty:-)
For me personally the most important message is that we already have everything we need. We are not condemned to buy readymade paints, we are able to actually create from scratch what we need: independent, imaginative and most of all, with so much fun!