finger painting

At the beginning of this month I decided it would be fun to introduce Kai to the messy fun that is finger painting! I am lucky to have access to a ton of art supplies (obviously) but also had 2 packages of natural, baby/kid friendly paint by Clementine Art. I first learned of this company when working at the baby store, and looked forward to the time when I could use it myself! I have to say that I do recommend this paint - the colours were bright, it was easy to work with & clean up as well. I only wish it came in larger quantities!

(image from clementineart.com)

The project was to create Kai's 1st painting as a birthday gift for his Daddy, on canvas of course! (I had some not 100% perfect canvas hanging around). I put on the old painting smock I wore as a kid on Kai & sat him in his booster seat up at our glass table - which is perfect for projects like this.  

I set out a bit of 5 colours; yellow, orange, red, blue & green (I didn't put out purple & I'm not sure why!) onto a disposable palette & set up his canvas. Of course the 1st thing he did was dip his little finger into the orange paint & bring it straight into his mouth! oops - good thing its natural paint right?! The soother then made an appearance!

At first he just explored the paint with his 1 finger, as he tends to do, but then got more into it and used his fingers and hands between the palette & the canvas making marks and smudges. Messy art activities are so good for little ones, it uses their senses and exercises their motor skills; feeling the wet liquid texture of the paint with their fingers and hands & exploring bright colours with their eyes.

Then he figured out that there was more to paint than just the canvas!

You can see the finished artwork below - a gem of an abstract! It made an awesome bday gift for Daddy too.  

I'm already looking forward to our next painting session! Can't wait for the day when he will paint next to me at his little easel creating his own little masterpieces!