Order and chaos!
This activity was inspired by the comfort of routine. Separate moments making the whole. Some creative, some mundane, some fun, some calm, all laid out in a complete appreciation of repetition and familiarity.
Materials Required:
- A1 paper
- Acrylic paint (variety of colours)
- Brushes
- Water (for the brushes)
- Wax or oil pastels (optional)
- Empty paper cups (or anything round)
- Scissors
- Pritt stick glue
- Laminator and pouches
- Hole Punch
- String (optional)
- Music, optional.
Step by Step Guide:
- Begin by having fun mark making using the paint (a variety of colours) and the wax or oil pastels on top of the A1 paper. If using music, think about how the different sounds may inspire different marks. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, just try and fill the page. To achieve this, stretch out your arm to reach the corners, or keep rotating the paper. (You can repeat this step as many times as you choose, the more the merrier!) Layering paint and marks makes more interesting pieces.
- Allow the paintings to dry then, using a round template (empty paper cups are easier to hold) draw around the cup and fill each painting with circles. Try not to let the circles over-lap.
- Cut-out the circles. Tip: roughly cut out the circles into strips so that the paper size is significantly reduced.
- Using just a dot of glue, roughly glue two dots together back to back, so you can see paint on either side.
- Laminate the dots
- Cut out the colourful dots and punch a hole in the top of each one.
- String the dots together, to hang in a window, or glue them to a canvas for an original piece of modern art!
Ideas for Further Activities With This Idea:
You could attach the stings of dots to a hoop and make a mobile, or dotty bunting.
Ways to adapt for less able residents:
As the painting is solely expressive, you can reduce the size of the paper so that it can be easily brought to each resident to make. The final mobile can be enjoyed by all, especially if it’s in a window, so able to move in the breeze.
