I’m sorry I’ve been a tad quiet over the past couple of weeks. Internet hassles have made it trickier than usual to post fab ideas here. So, now I need to make it up to you! Let’…

🍁 Watercolour paintings made with leaves and grasses This is a really lovely activity to do with children and for adults of all ages! Letting the watercolour paint dry with the leaves and grasses...

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Science and art combine in this amazing and simple rainbow experiment. The kids will love to make, explore and paint rainbows,

La famille Larsson a huit enfants : Suzanne (1884), Ulf (1887, mort à 18 ans), Pontus (1888), Lisbeth (1891), Brita (1893), Mats (1894, mort à 2 mois), Kersti (1896) et Esbjörn (1900). Cette famille devient le principal sujet de Larsson. En 1888 le père de Karin (Adolf Bergöö) leur offre une petite maison à Sundborn, qu'ils décorent et meublent suivant leurs goûts artistiques. À travers les livres et les peintures de Larsson, cette maison est devenue une des demeures d'artiste les plus célèbres de par le monde. Elle est actuellement encore la possession des descendants de la famille, qui l'ouvrent tous les ans aux touristes de mai à octobre. La popularité de Larsson a grandement progressé avec le développement de l'impression couleur dans les années 1890, lorsque l'éditeur suédois Bonnier publie des livres écrits et illustrés par Carl Larsson, et contenant des reproductions de ses aquarelles. Plus tard, en 1909, l'éditeur allemand Karl Robert Langewiesche (1874–1931) publie sur le même principe Das Haus in der Sonne, qui devient rapidement un best-seller, vendu à travers l'Allemagne à 40 000 exemplaires, et réédité plus de 40 fois jusqu'en 2001. Ce succès fait l'étonnement des époux Larsson. Larsson est également un des premiers auteurs de bande dessinée suédois, avec ses quelques histoires en images. Larsson considère ses œuvres monumentales, telles ses fresques dans des écoles, des musées et d'autres bâtiments publics, comme ses réalisations les plus importantes. Sa dernière œuvre monumentale, Midvinterblot, créée en 1915 pour le dernier mur des escaliers du musée national des beaux arts de Stockholm, fut refusée par la direction du musée. Elle n'a été installée à cette place qu'en 1992. Dans ses mémoires, Jag (Je), publiées après sa mort, Larsson déclare son amertume et sa déception face au refus de ce qu'il considérait lui-même comme son chef d'œuvre.

Tissue paper is a wonderfully versatile medium for artwork which can be used in so many ways, either on its own or in combination with other art materials. It’s translucent qualities give its colours a brightness and luminosity and also make it perfect for layering. It also lends itself perfectly for use with texture. For the purposes of this post I’m going to be looking at ideas for using tissue paper as a medium for 2 dimensional artwork – there are of course lots of ways to use it in 3-dimensional work too, but I think you could probably write an entire book if I was to include that too! 1 Use it to Add Texture Using tissue paper to add texture to mixed media pieces is easy to do. Either by scrunching it up before gluing to your support, or by gluing it down first, and then creating your texture upon it before it dries. Once dry, the texture can be emphasised further by rubbing lightly over it with chalk or oil pastels. Add a further dimension by printing onto tissue paper using a home printer, and then gluing your printed out paper onto your prepared support. Depending upon the colour and density of the printed image, the translucency of the paper will allow the texture and colour of the support beneath to modify and give richness to your printed image. If you want to try this, make sure you tape the edges of your sheet of tissue paper to a piece of support paper – (I use masking tape for this), otherwise the paper will be too fine, and is likely to tear and/or jam in your printer. Exploring Texture and Layers Click on the title above to find out more about this layering technique… 2 Use it in Layers Because it is so fine, tissue paper can be used in several layers on artwork without the surface becoming too bulky. It’s important to let each layer dry before you add the next, otherwise you are in danger of creating a soggy, pulpy mess. Tissue paper can be used like a glaze to add a depth and richness of colour to a piece of artwork, in addition to texture, and once you have several layers, there is the option to peel back selectively to reveal parts of the layers beneath. Because of this translucency it is also of course excellent for use in simple suncatchers… 3 Use it for Collage Either on its own or with other materials, tissue paper is ideal for collage because it is so light. Admittedly it can be quite fiddly to cut out shapes, but using lots of smaller torn pieces or simple squares is easier for young children, or if you want a more 3 dimensional result, try scrunching small pieces and forming them into small balls. Even More Tissue-Paper Cards Find out more about this technique by clicking on the heading above. Bleeding Art Tissue Paper If you struggle to find any suitable tissue paper for this purpose, you can find some by clicking on the image below.(affiliate link) 4 Use it to Create Watercolours You can do this by using bleeding tissue paper – this is the kind which is non-colour fast and bleeds colour when it is wet. Most coloured tissue paper won’t work, because the colour is fast, but you can sometimes find cheap paper which is perfect for the job. There are lots of different creative ways to use bleeding tissue paper. At its very simplest, you can arrange pieces of the tissue onto paper, and then leave it out in a shower of rain. When the tissue is removed it will leave random colour stains which run together like water-colour. If you leave the whole thing to dry and then remove the tissue paper carefully, you will find you are left with beautiful watercolour shaded pieces of tissue paper (see image below) which can be used again for collage work. I like to create a collaged piece of artwork like that illustrated above left, by cutting shapes or tearing pieces and then gluing them down onto thin card, overlapping them in places. Once dry I then splash and spray water over it to give texture and a watercolour feel to the artwork. 5 Use it for Mixed Media work Many of the above ideas can of course be combined in mixed media artwork. The artwork illustrated here demonstrates 2 different ways. The first image uses tissue paper on top of a canvas board to give added texture, with watercolour washes over. Oil pastel has been added in places, and finally pen and ink has been used to give detail. In the second image, a simple drawing was made using white wax crayon. Bleeding tissue paper was added loosely over it, and then sprayed with water until it was completely wet. A sheet of glass was placed over the top, and the whole thing turned over so that the paper could be rubbed over the wet tissue and glass – basically like monoprinting – this causes the colour to spread much further. The glass was removed and further texture added by sprinkling salt crystals onto the wet areas, which were removed when dry.

We have been experimenting a lot with watercolors lately. Something about seeing the colors mix and blend together is incredibly satisfying! I also love that there are so many watercolor painting ideas for kids out there that are easy and also look stunning. That's a win-win! If you have a little artist on your hands,

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Another easy art project for kids - experimenting with water colours and salt or cling wrap.

This work is from my watercolor weaving series. Most are individual watercolor paintings that I rip apart and weave into a new order. After I’m satisfied with the results, I often draw on th…

My kids are always wanting to paint, so I thought I would change it up a little by letting them make this marbleized paper that I found on Unplug Your Kids. Now I can't lie...this was messy, so make sure your kids are wearing something to protect their clothing. And definitely don't let the word "messy" deter you

My very first watercolor paintings were local landscapes, and as I’ve grown and evolved as an artist, that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. I often say that if we ever moved, my way of settling in my new region would be to get to know it through the medium of brush, paint and paper.

DIY Seifenblasen-Schriftzug mit dem STABILO woody 3 in 1

oil pastel & watercolor ~ Sara Roizen “It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci It was pouring rain as I headed deep into Brooklyn to lead one of my art therapy groups at a residential building for adults living with chronic mental illness. It seemed fitting...

i recently spent a fabulous workshop weekend with a room full of very talented and enthusiastic artists at donna downey studios…. and our instructor was the uber-talented danielle donaldson! our first day was spent painting squares. beautiful, boxy squares painted in a row….. and some painted in a grid. {i couldn't resist labeling them…. those heavenly boxes were just calling out for some letterforms!} and then we stretched the square into a rectangle and created our own "paint strip". on the second day it was back to squares in a more nostalgic way…. danielle showed us how to paint a rainbow viewfinder disc! then we switched things up a bit and created a collage square, and i'll be honest….. while my inner-grid girl was absolutely thrilled with painting squares, i tend to hit a brick wall when it comes to collaged squares. while a collage looks like just a bunch of tidbits randomly placed on the paper, there's still a lot of intuitive order going on when it comes to placement, and i've never been able to figure out what that order is! but thankfully, sweet little rachel who was sitting at my table gave me some great suggestions and jolted me back to reality, and my deer-in-the-headlight stare slowly faded away. and just so we'd have something to sit on top of our collage square, we ended our day with a drawing lesson from danielle. she has the most wonderful imagination, and her little animals are as precious as she is. by the end of day three, everything came together as a finished piece…. and every time i look at my bear square i'll be reminded what a truly marvelous artist, instructor, and sharing person danielle is, and i'll think of all the awesome energy in donna's studio, the inspiring people i shared the weekend with (hi joanna!), and how hitting a brick wall can sometimes be one of the best lessons of the entire weekend! :)) {danielle offers online workshops, too…..click here for info!}

Pendulum painting - a great outdoor science experiment, creating fabulous shapes and patterns

You will need: A big sheet of white paper (we used a strip of butchers block paper), a few different food colourings, a few snails and a bit...

First graders have been working on this painting the past few weeks. We are studying weather patterns and having fun learning new techniques with watercolor like blowing, dripping, and adding salt! Third grade is painting these fun jellyfish watercolor resists! I LOVE this Liquitex gloss Medium and Varnish!! It makes a great resist! We just painted this gloss medium right on the paper to create our jellies... We are using warm colors for the Jelly and cool colors+salt for the water I just LOVE the texture from the salt! One of the high school teachers in our district used the Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish to make these gorgeous multimedia watercolor resists for Dia De Los Muertos. They stamped the Gloss on the paper, drew their design, and painted over it. We are going to use this technique with our Sureal Self Portraits this year! Cannot WAIT!!