Salt Painting

Day 4 of the Science Lab was all about reactions.
Mother Goose Time suggested we try a new way of painting in order to study this topic.

This.  This is my new favorite way of painting!  Hands down.  

Salt Painting.  

The painting closeups above were made by my 2 year old, and I am framing this bad boy as soon as I can make it to Hobby Lobby for a nice black frame at 50% off. 

I have used salt with watercolors before with my own artwork, but this one turned out completely different! Why? Because these watercolors are homemade.  This fact made the salt STICK to the watercolor leaving an amazing effect.

I used this recipe to make the watercolors and a Wilton 8 pack of gel food coloring.  The Wilton gel colors give the watercolors a rich dark color, definitely better than a lot of kid friendly watercolor brands and regular liquid food coloring. My set had black and not brown.
  If you are going to try this out, give your watercolors a few days to dry and harden.

    

I think (not completely sure) it's the cornstarch that makes the salt stick, but whatever did it, I am so glad it did.  The salt glistens, and it didn't stick to all of the areas.  Sweet Pea would paint, add some salt, paint some more, and pour on more salt.  She wasn't the best at shaking the salt around, but let it pour in areas, which also helped give the painting the effect that it has.

After watching Sweet Pea complete her painting, I have to do one of my own next week during nap time!  Here is her final piece of artwork hanging on her art wall above her table.

 Later that afternoon, after her nap, Sweet Pea saw her artwork hanging above her table and exclaimed,"Wow, Momma!  Wow!"

I said the same thing earlier, my girl... Wow.

Thank you Mother Goose Time for opening our eyes to a new way of painting... a way that forms reactions both within the painting itself, and by the artist themselves. 

This post has been linked to 1+1+1=1 a great site for many ideas to do with your Tot.