Tribal Art for Kids

Originally published on Pepper Paints

Our afternoon started like this; with some Jackson Pollock splatter painting:

Then like this:

Then they realized how much paint they had on their bodies and it could have been all down hill from there.

But, really it ended up being the kind of experience that we (crazy parents!) hope for!  I remembered that we have a book from the library all about body painting that we have really been enjoying.  I have renewed it twice!

NATURAL FASHION TRIBAL DECORATION FROM AFRICA  By Hans Silvester

We looked at the beautiful photos together-quickly-

and they were off!!

Then it was in the pool to wash off!!

Really it was extraordinary.  I waited to actually read anything from the book to them until they were cleaning up.  But the information on these tribes was fascinating.  They paint each other and are the mirrors for each other.  Just as these girls did today.  They took turns painting each others backs and hair.  It wasn’t enough to see their own reflections in the mirror.  They continually asked for the others opinions.  They loved the tactile, sensory experience of it. And when they were finished, they washed each other.  I took over 200 photos of them this afternoon-I am a little weary of posting many of them as they are in their bathing suites and some creep commented on my flickr page.

The author writes about the speed in which  the Surmi and the Mursi paint themselves. It never takes more than a minute!  ” A similar artwork created with painstaking meticulousness would not convey the same modernist immediacy that is so pleasing to the eye…..Modern artists like Picasso, Matisse and others, in the course of a long period of development, eventually recaptured the spontaneity that comes close to childhood..  It is this that marks the work of these African tribes-movement with out self-consciousness or inhibition, doing what comes naturally, determined by things that are ephemeral and perhaps even more importantly, brief:  they know the right moment at which to stop.  It is the same spontaneity we see when young children begin to draw something, break off, grab another sheet, draw something else, then start all over gain.  As they grow older, they become preoccupied with finishing touches…tiles on the roof, a fireplace, birds in the sky, clouds and so on.  They find it impossible to stop, and the more they persist, the more cluttered the drawing becomes, lost in the welter of higgledy-piggleddy detail.”

We used washable tempra paint and it all washed off.  Molly thought it was the best project we have ever done! Huh-it was all their idea!

Editor's Pick by Amy from doobleh-vay:   I love Pepper Paints, a camera totting Mama to three homeschooled kids 13. 9, 4 who lives her days creatively in Middle America,  and who inspires me with her art and education that she chronicles on her blog. Read more and dive into her archives to be delighted and to get great information for yr own children!

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Comments

[World's Greatest Mommy]

This was so fun to see. And the look of wild abandon in their eyes was great! I think my kids might die of shock if I told them we were going to paint ourselves. It would be fun to try, just to see their faces.