NATURE PAINTING WALL

We love any craft activity that also get you out into nature. So to make our nature painting wall, first we went on a walk to collect lots of interesting shape and texture 'nature' to paint; think sticks, pine cones, bark, shells, gum nuts or seed pods.

This kind of process art is a great collaborative project for a group of children. If you are not familiar with the concept of process art, the most basic definition is art that focuses on the process rather than the outcome. There is no right or wrong way to paint a branch or pine cone, the fun is in sploshing the paint and watching the colours mix.

MATERIALS:

• Lots of nature like bark, sticks, pine cones, shells or seed pods
• A large sheet to ply wood or MDF, ours was 60 cm x 100cm
• Wood glue or a hot glue gun
• Paints
• Brushes
• Squeezy bottles (optional)

HOW TO:

Begin by collecting lots of nature. Glue all the nature onto the large wooden board. You can use either wood glue or a hot glue gun. Wood glue is stronger but it takes longer to dry, hot glue is much faster but not so secure.

Once you have glued all the pieces onto the wall it's time to begin painting. First I gave the children paint brushes, once they had covered a lot of the wood I added in some squeezy bottles to splash more paint. A great tip for this kind of project is to keep all the colour paints within the same colour group so you don't end up with brown if they mix together!

Happy crafting friends!