We have been going through one of our painting phases lately. Combination of trying out new paints, rainy weather and the fact the kids discovered a new book – Usborne Art Book About Colour. I must admit I was actually surprised by how much the kids enjoyed this book. But they loved reading about how colour developed over time and what natural items were used to create the old colours that artists used. The book also talks about the colour wheel, primary colours, secondary colours and complementary colours.
My youngest was very taken with the idea of complementary colours (after he got over the fact that blue and red are not complementary colours) so we thought we would use it in some fun paintings. He started off my dividing a tree in half. The first half had green leaves so the second half needed to the red leaves (the complementary colour of green) and the first half has oranges hanging in the tree so the second half had “blues” hanging in the tree.
We thought it such a fun idea so my daughter joined in and tried some flowers using the same idea of complementary colours.
The following day my youngest wanted to stick with the idea so I suggested using complementary colours to show reflections of buildings in a lake. He loved it and jumped in.
The building reflection worked out so well so we also tried a flower reflection.
I really liked the idea of using complementary colours to split an object in half and it could be any object. I would love to see the kids do it for a self-portrait.
Oh and one more. The kids did a “mixed up” complementary colour flower just for fun. Love it. They were giggling away as they did the “confused flower” together.
ofamily learning together 