Keeping with this month’s theme of heading outdoors with your kids here are 20 creative ways to take art outside!
Painting
1. Paint onto bark instead of paper.
2. Take the easel into the backyard and encourage your child to paint something they can see outside.
3. Paint with water! Just give your child a cup of water and a paintbrush.
4. Have a go at creating natural paints by grinding soft rocks to make a powder, then mixing with a little water. Paint using only fingers either onto rock, or onto paper.
5. Use different natural elements as paintbrushes. Feathers, sticks and leaves of varying thicknesses can all work well.
Drawing
6. Sketch a tree, flower or insect with a lead pencil only. Encourage your child to draw the features they see.
7. Make leaf rubbings by colouring over leaves placed under paper. Remember to put the leaves vein-side-up for best results.
8. Draw with ice. Ice cubes can be used as drawing implements on concrete paths and driveways in summer. Or add a little food colouring before freezing and use on paper.
9. Draw with chalk, pastels or charcoal. These soft mediums are lovely to work with, but can be very messy so great to take outside.
10. Use a stick to draw or write in sand or soil. A sandpit makes a great canvas, but a quiet stretch of beach is even better.
Sculpture
11. Collect natural elements (sticks, stones, shells, leaves, etc) and create a sculpture with playdough. Older children may like to use a hot glue gun to make a more permanent sculpture.
12. Weave with long leaves, feathers, grasses or pieces of bark. To make a simple weaving loom, wrap wool around a piece of cardboard spacing evenly, and attach at both ends.
13. Hang natural elements from a branch to form a mobile. Some items may need a hole drilled into them for threading, others may be simply tied.
14. Create ground art by using natural elements directly on the ground. Take a photo of finished work. This art work can be as big as your child likes!
15. Add eyes and other features to rocks to create imaginary creatures.
Other
16. Collect natural elements and use to create a collage.
17. Press leaves and flowers between heavy books.
18. Let your child use a digital camera outside! You might be surprised at what they capture and even frame one of their images.
19. Make prints with leaves. Roll paint directly onto the leaves with a small roller and print on paper.
20. Just lie back and watch the clouds together. What pictures can you see in the clouds…?
I hope this list kick starts your creativity and encourages you to get arty outdoors with the kids this week. As always with children’s art, remember that the process is far more important than the end product. It is in the process of art-making that skills are developed, creativity is fostered and little imaginations take flight. I can think of no better backdrop to inspire your kids than nature itself.
Have you already tried any of these suggestions? What other ideas for creating art outdoors can you share?
For more fun creative art ideas for kids, check out Christie’s book, Time to Create: Hands On Explorations in Process Art
Catherine Oehlman (aka SquiggleMum) is a mother, teacher, writer, picture book lover, outdoor play advocate, coffee drinker and self confessed bird-nerd. She still climbs trees and eats fairy bread – with or without her two young kids! You can find Cath squiggling about topics close to her heart online and in print, or catch her weekly on Brisbane radio.
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