#Crush on the Medium Paint

This #Crush got a little bigger than I had planned, but I'm glad I chose to do this medium because it reminded me of why I let my room get so messy with paint so often.  It's because it's a spectacular medium and should be celebrated and used. Let's start by talking about one of the most out of the box... but inside the frame, ways that I have used paints... painting with Sphero.

Painting with Robots: 

Last year I was lucky enough to work at a school where we had over 25 sphero robots and iPads to run them all. I wanted to get all students to have the opportunity to use the robots so what better way to do that than bring it into the Art Room where in a digital week 700+ kids make their way through the space.  We played with the spheros in many ways but one was Painting With Sphero. Check the previous post to see the other ways that we explored spheros in the Art Room. 

Painting on Clay: 

Paint is a great alternative to glaze.  Once I do clay week with my students I'm often overwhelmed with the amount of clay that must be finished.  In order to reduce the amount of glazing (and subsequently firing again), I use paint as a finishing technique often.  Check out the post about Crock-O-Gater, Clay Bugs, and the Coil Pots pictured above. 

Paint Reduction: 

I love using a reduction method with paint.  Sometimes we 'make paper' by spreading paint onto a paper and taking off the paint with rubber tools, eraser tips, or texture tools. Two examples I can share with you are as follows: 1. As we were designing paper to use on our Artist Trading Cards 2. in this cute little Painted Snail project. Both examples students paint on the page and remove some of the paint for a different application of the medium.  

Large Format Painting:

Paint is often the medium of choice when we want to cover a large space in a short time. It's fun to give students a large sheet of paper and have them paint in a traditional way. They love it and feel like 'artist'. Here are three examples of painted projects that I have done in the past; Warm and Cool Color City, Paint by Number Geometric Shapes, and Radial Balance Painting.

Color Theory: 

Color mixing, blending, and playing is often discovered most strong with paint. Check out this Color Mixing lesson where I have asked my students to mix 100 different colors. Or this tint project where there is a student ready video explaining how to create tints. 

New Paint Mediums:

Playcolors or Paint Sticks are a new medium to me in the last couple of years.  They are such a slick way to apply paint.  I still have a hard time putting them in the 'paint' category, but the bold colors are comparable so sure... why not... let's call it paint.  One lesson where my students used paint sticks for their project is in the Primary Pedal Project.

Watercolor: 

See... this is where the medium 'paint' gets big. Watercolor fits under this umbrella as well... and under that umbrella is pan watercolors, liquid watercolors, watercolor pencil, and tube or fresh watercolors.  I chose to highlight liquid watercolors above with this really fun Swimming Figure project. I love the quick application and bold colors of liquid watercolors.  Below is a watercolor painting that was altered with snow. Simply flicking water or snow on a watercolor image leaves these organic shapes that can really shift your image from realistic to abstract. 

Collaborative Painting: 

There is nothing like setting up your classroom for some collaborative painting. I set out paints and paper for these little Artists at the end of a school year. At the start of the next school year, their paintings were displayed in one large work of art, click here. 

My love for paint runs beyond my classroom walls.  I'm not at all afraid of a little color on my wall. My husband says we loose square footage of our homes that we live in because I change the colors on the walls so much that the walls are getting thicker with the paint coats. Some of the most recent rooms I have done is my son's room and my laundry room. 

In my personal life, the greatest paint love is watercolor.  I love to bring watercolor into my sketchbooks and art on a regular basis.

Well, there you have it... I have professed my #crush on paint to the world. Check back on Thursday when I share my #crush on markers as I continue my series on mediums.