Two Process Art Splatter Paintings

Process art prioritizes the creative journey & exploration over a specific, predetermined outcome, emphasizing the experience of making art rather than the final product.  With minimal directives these two splatter paintings have been a staple in our centers. 

1. Hide & Splat Painting: This invitation is always a highly engaging full body motor movement experience. Before we dive into how this process art comes about 1st things 1st, whenever we use real tools such as these mallets we go over rules about safety & how to properly use the tool. Real tools are far more interesting to young children which naturally leads children to be more positively & constructively invested in their use & in the experience as a whole. The use of real tools gives children a sense of accomplishment & a truer inner joy for creating because they are using something out of the norm with their art. The child's self-awareness & awareness of others around them is heightened as they are using the real tools because they are being more tactful/observant. Throughout this whole process we are providing a space where we honor the children’s abilities & intelligence while sending the message that they are capable of creating anything even when using a tool.

To set this invitation we placed blobs of Colorations Fluorescent paint underneath the cotton rounds onto the poster paper. Provided mallets as their painting tool, and the children freely splatted away and created magic!

2. Splatter Cotton Ball Painting: This invitation combines all kinds of multilayer learning. Between the sensory exploration of touching the soft cotton balls & squishiness once they get dipped in paint there is so much to feel. Then there are all the motor skills being used, from pinching/grasping the cotton balls using their fine motor skills to the large full body motions the children use when they throw them.

To set this invitation we stapled poster paper to our fence, invited the children to dip the cotton ball in Colorations®  Metallic Paint and throw the cotton ball.

Through these invitations children get to focus on the experience, engaging with materials, techniques, & the act of creation itself.  It is open-ended & exploratory therefore itt encourages children  to experiment, discover, & express themselves freely, without the pressure of creating a "perfect" piece. The benefits of these types of process art invitations 

fosters creativity, problem-solving skills, fine motor development, & social-emotional growth.

Unlike product-focused art, which emphasizes a specific outcome or skill, process art is about the journey of creation.