Storybook Summer post by Julie of Creekside Learning

The original book, Olivia, details Olivia’s favorite activities, including deciding what to wear, building sandcastles of famous buildings, gazing at fine works of art at a museum and refusing to nap.

Olivia has some opinions about a Jackson Pollock piece at the museum. “I could do that in about five minutes.”, she tells her mother.

And then, she does.

So my daughter and I decided to create an Oliva-Jackson Pollock masterpiece. Right in our driveway. First, we got all set up in the driveway. We used rocks to hold down our long piece of white butcher paper.

I poured washable tempura paint in little paper cups. We selected an array of paint brushes and some wooden craft sticks.

My daughter began to paint. Or rather, fling the paint.

She couldn’t resist stepping in the paint and putting some paint on her feet and legs.

She remembered that we read somewhere, that Pollock liked to listen to music while he created his famous art so I put the Black Eyed Peas on my ipod and she danced and painted and giggled with joy. Then, she decided to mix the paint.

Next she dipped all the brushes into all the mixed paint and flung it at the paper. By this time, the paint was completely brown.

We had such fun with this project. She wants to do it again.

And her brothers would like to have a go at it as well. We now have a lovely speckled painting adorning our wall in our art room.

Julie blogs about her adventures in learning alongside her kids at Creekside Learning. When not setting her kitchen on fire from science experiments gone awry, she enjoys doing lots of outdoor activities with her kids. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. She lives in the suburban Washington, D.C area.