What to do during a T8 (Pokemon Forest)…

Preparation: Get sticks from along the road.

Cost: Nothing.

(She’s not very happy about it being too sunny and hot)

Next: Paint sticks, dig up whatever cheap plastic rubbish toys you’ve got lying around that can be glued on, sew sticks to whatever old canvas you’ve got lying around (or bung everything together and glue it…)

Cost: Still Nothing.

There’s an additional back story about that old canvas: It’s a large canvas that Rockstar insisted on choosing at our last ArtJam – at like, more than twice the price of everyone else’s including Queen E’s and all his other friends’, despite everyone else telling him in this case bigger wasn’t better. He then struggled to fill it, decided it was all hideous, and we ended up all scraping paint back and forth across it in the general Minecraft colours. 

(Much younger Rockstar – note rounder face haha that’s how old that canvas is)

And that was the Miss back in the day

Alternatives: Hello Kitty, Frozen, Lego, Unnamed Ugly Bits Of Plastic…. (If really, really ugly, just paint everything one colour and stick them on an old contrasting coloured picture… Or paint them different colours and stick them on a monochromatic board… Or glue everything the night before and melt crayons on them with a hair dryer after…)

Remember this one? Queen E’s first “painting” when she about a year old (the original Artjam canvas is much older haha)… Rockstar and I sewed leftover neon sticks (yes he learned to sew in Year 2)

Rockstar’s first sewing – cross stitch art work from school in Y2 – this was also a useful way to practice graph/ coordinates reading in math, because the kids have to follow the mapped instructions to sew it (but pick their own colours)

Clean-up: put the kids in swimsuits and bung them in a bathtub with bubbles or Crayola colour bath pellets

And here’s the new old finished product:

Pokemon Forest!

It’s a reminder that there is a moment before (and even after) the paint hits the canvas, and before it dries. Breathe right, and you can change the way the painting looks. There are no mistakes in art, only a lack of imagination.

What old, ugly metaphorical pieces of plastic in your life can you turn into art? Good week ahead, dears…