Liquid Watercolor Activity: Painting a Wooden Mosaic

One of the first projects we did with our new liquid watercolors was to paint a wooden mosaic. I prepared the mosaic ahead of time. I wanted the focus to be on the painting and so I streamlined a bit by having the mosaics ready. I made one for Michael and another for Ava.

I let each child choose three colors. Ava chose red, purple, and blue. Michael chose red, yellow, and orange. I opened those containers on their paint trays, gave them a paintbrush and water to clean it between colors, and let them paint.

Ava preferred a free-spirited approach to the project. She would saturate one piece and put dots on another. Then she did one long stripe across the entire page. She went back and added a second color to some of the wooden pieces she had already painted. And suddenly, she was done. It didn't bother her in the slightest that only half of her mosaic was painted.

Michael took a much more organized approach. He painted one column at a time and was never tempted to vary from that set pattern. He painted each wooden piece once and moved on. When the last piece was painted he was finished. He could not be persuaded to go back and try combining colors or adding dots.

I think I'll pull the mosaics out another day and see if they are interested in working on them again. My goal was for them to realize that the liquid watercolors are good for more than simply painting paper, and that goal was certainly achieved.