Okay, so the last family art attempt was really fun, but didn't look very good. This is try number two. We wanted to imitate the Circle Painting movement happening in Asia. Sarah and I painted the basic pattern so there'd be a certain level of continuity. Everyone picked a circle or area to paint and they were allowed to paint it however they chose. It was a project that we kept out for two days, so the children would work on it in pieces here and there. They really enjoyed it and it was fun to see what they chose to do with their own areas. Matthew particularly loved mixing his own colors for his circles. Sarah was meticulous, adding lots of dots and swirls. Daniel just did dots. We would sit around the table as a family working on it after dinner. It was really fun and I want to do more projects like this.
For anyone wanting to do a similar project, check out the Circle Painting website for some info on international projects, some of which are really huge. It's www.circlepainting.org.
To make the project, take a piece of cloth, either a bed sheet for a large painting, or a smaller square cut to size. Canvas worked better than thin cotton. We didn't have any paint bleed through the canvas. We used a scrap left over from an earlier sewing project. It's also best to prime the canvas with a layer of paint, or else the canvas will start to wrinkle and roll as the details are painted on. We used the cheap craft paint found at any department store.
You can lay out a basic background pattern, or just let everyone paint whatever they choose. I found it works best to have some sort of background colors; it adds a lot of character to the painting.
Hidden in our picture are the following: the tree of life, our favorite hen, a mouse, the three degrees of glory, a cherry pie, the missing piece of pie, blue eyes, the names of each person in the family, and a winding path through the entire painting. Can you find them all?
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