Playing With Paint

Last week while substituting for the art teacher at school, I got to unleash my inner artist. If you know me in real life you know that I have absolutely no artistic ability at all. It's such a shame because my grandmother is actually an artist. Neither my mother nor I can draw or paint though--sorry mom. You know it's true.

The good thing about teaching kindergarten and first graders is that you don't have to be good. The project the art teacher left for us was coloring underwater sea creatures in oil pastels and then painting a background in tempera paint. It's really neat because the paint goes right over the oil pastels, so it teaches the kids how oil and water don't mix. I've never seen this technique before, but I love it! I love it so much that I created two original "works of art."

Masterpiece Number One

See how the black paint beads on the oil pastel?  Isn't that cool?

I decided to add some whimsy to my upstairs bathroom by framing my second "work of art" in a cheap frame I found at the thrift store.

Masterpiece Number Two

The best part of it is that apparently tempera paintings are very long lasting. Wikipedia tells me that examples from the first century AD still exist. Looks like my little octopus has a long, full life ahead of him.