Artist(s) in Residence

As much as I loved the idea of a detached garage at our old house (you know, that whole out-in-the-country multiple building thing) opening to the alley, I didn't like the idea of schelpping all the way out there to do fix-it projects. Bonus points to our new house for having an attached garage! The problem? We can't get a car in there without a) blocking the second fridge, washer/dryer, and workbench or b) being blocked in by the car sitting out in the driveway.
So in the meantime, I've gotten busy with a number of furniture repainting projects (yay, utility sink!), and with Munch's cousin here for a sleepover this weekend, pulled out the easels so they could have some art time. Each of the girls got to choose a canvas and set up a paper plate palette of paints (say THAT three times, quickly!). I also gave them a jarful of assorted brushes, with the reminder to switch brushes when they wanted a new color so that their paint wouldn't get runny, from rinsing, or muddy.

Both girls started out with bright paintings of rainbows. As I dug through my various supplies, I also found palette knives, sponges, paper towel tubes, and other odds and ends which cousin D. eventually experimented with. She blotted paint to create a soft, smudgy effect, dipped the tube into paint to print designs over the painting, and played with scraping away paint with the palette knife. Now that the paint is dry, I think I'll give the girls additional art materials so that they can try adding collage elements or drawn elements to their paintings, followed by another round of painting. It will be interesting to see how their artwork evolves.