“A Storm Thundering So Loud”

Yesterday the munchkin and I tried a simple painting technique that had stellar results. What do you think? Isn’t the painting above pretty? The munchkin titled it “A Storm Thundering So Loud.” He based it on the weather map we were watching last week when an impressive thunderstorm hit our house so hard there was water gushing through the windows. (!!) When you looked at the storm on my weather app you saw this big red blob and we were right in the middle. Apparently it made an impression on the munchkin because he still talks about the “red cloud.”

So what is this super simple painting technique? I’m not sure you can even call it a technique really. I call it “tap painting” and all you do is dip your brush into whatever color or colors you want, then tap the brush onto your canvas. Do this over and over with as many different colors as you want. Eventually you’ll hit a moment where you know the painting is finished. That’s it!

To begin, I demonstrated the “technique” for the munchkin on some white construction paper. I showed him how – instead of brushing the paint across the surface – you tapped the bristles into the paper. He got the hang of it quickly and before I knew it he was asking for canvas so that he could tap as hard as he wanted. (The construction paper tore a couple times after we had some especially enthusiastic tapping.)

After that, it was all the munchkin! I love watching him paint because – unlike me – he doesn’t think about where the paint should go. He just feels it and goes with it. I find that really hard to do as an adult.

“Red Bird in a Tree”

This next tap painting he calls “Red Bird in a Tree.” There are Cardinal birds that like to visit a tree in our backyard and the munchkin loves watching them with his binoculars. When my husband asked which painting was for his office, the munchkin chose this one.

“Color Circus”

This last painting the munchkin titled “Color Circus.” I’m not really sure where he got that from. Maybe because we took him to see a circus a couple weeks ago? Or it could be from Madagascar 3, which is his favorite “family movie night” flick. There are some intensely colorful circus scenes in there. :)

Now in terms of materials we kept it simple. We used:

• 8×10 canvas panels (the same kind we used for our watercolor, glue and salt paintings)
• Crayola paint
• Sargent Glitter Tempura Paint
• Melissa & Doug Jumbo brushes

I hope you enjoy this project!