February 22, 2011

painting the blackboard

Inspired as I always am by Jean Van't Hul, and feeling a little uninspired by our usual art activities, I gave Ollie a bowl of water, some paint brushes and suggested we go and paint the black board out on the front deck. Lately Ollie's been less interested in crayons (which is probably just as well as Max is more keen to chew on them than anything else) but he's been bringing home the most gorgeous paintings.  He loves to splodge his paintbrush and tell me what colours he's using but we don't do much painting at home.

So, this was a total success.  Low set up effort, low mess and it kept going and going.  Every time the board dried (with or without Ollie's diligent use of kitchen roll), he got to start again, make different patterns, add some chalk, then some water, then a bit more chalk... and then after he'd forgotten about it and spent some time with his beloved cars and his book of the moment, back out he went for some more 'painting on the blackboard'.  When Max woke from his nap with his funny looking emu hair, he joined in too, grabbing a paintbrush and slapping it around on the floor, the board, the table.  The first time I have ever seen Max with a paintbrush in his hand and probably the first activity we have set up that both Ollie and Max have been able to enjoy together.  Cute.

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