red and yellow

jess has been experimenting with some colour mixing today.

red strokes with the paint brush over the yellow ones to make orange.

watching her face during this process was lovely. the interest and then recognition of what was happening when the two colours combined.

jess has painted with more than one colour at a time before at playgroup. the colours she used there weren't primary colours (i think they were a dirty brown, purple and a little fluro pink...hmmm!) and the mixing process was lost on her at the time.

at home we have spent reasonable amounts of time using single primary colours to concentrate on the painting process and getting acquainted with using a paintbrush. this has also helped towards colour recognition.

i think i have introduced using two colours at a time when jess's interest in painting has been waning and i am hoping that interest will now be re-ignited. it certainly seemed to be today. 

jess did a couple of paintings, the first i didn't photograph so what you see in the pictures is the second. we used some paper cut into a circle as we are starting to talk about and look at shapes.

also moving the easel inside, thus changing the location seemed to help too. apron went on, paint covered fingers stayed close to the easel, mum tried to stay calm about any potential mess and it was all good. painting outside had usually ended up being about water play.

i am excited about trying blue and yellow but will wait a while yet and continue with the red and yellow, perhaps with jess trying to mix some in a separate pot before applying it to the paper. 

jess's chatter while painting went like this...

cat, cat on a wall, red cat, yellow cat, marmalade cat, i'm painting a sun, moon, cat on a wall, bee, yellow bee, a spider, frog, cat on the wall, marmalade moon, high in the sky, painting for daddy... 

love.

i mainly follow the outlines for introducing colours and art experiences from the wonderful book by susan striker called young at art.