Painting with Water - a fun and easy to set up outdoor art idea

Painting with water is such a fun and easy to set up outdoor art idea for the kids to try this summer. Young children love being creative and this easy painting activity avoids all the mess usually involved with painting! Toddlers and preschoolers can work on fine motor skills as they mark make using a paintbrush and water on a chalk background. 

We love taking our art activities outdoors during the Spring and Summer. You must take a look at our collection of easy outdoor art ideas to see some of the other fun art activities we do outside. This collection has so many fun ideas included including water pistol painting which is soooo much fun and painting with nature paintbrushes. 

Taking art outside is great as there is so much more space than there is inside and it doesnt matter how much mess the kids make. Having said that the activity which we are sharing today doesnt make much mess at all! If your child prefers activities like this that avoid the mess they might also enjoy our no mess painting. 

You will need:

• Chalkboard
• Jumbo chalks
• Paintbrush
• Water

Painting with Water - Easy Outdoor Art

I love how easy it is to set up this painting with water activity and it creates almost no mess. We used an easel with a chalkboard on one side to do our water painting on but you could use any chalkboard. You could even make your own DIY chalkboard table to use!

Begin by covering your chalkboard completely with chalk. We choose to use three colours and used the side of our jumbo chalks to cover the chalkboard quickly. 

Give your child a paintbrush and a pot of water and invite them to create a picture or pattern on top of the chalk.

I tired to encourage Daisy (aged 3) to have a go at painting a D for Daisy, but she had other ideas.

As the water is painted onto the chalk it will leave bold black lines which makes the designs created quite striking. You can experiment with using different sized paintbrushes.

Daisy (aged 3) loved creating different shapes and swirls with the water and was really proud of her artwork. 

Anotehr fun idea to try is to draw a picture, pattern or write some letters with chalk and then use the paintbrush dipped in water to erase them. 

Painting with water doesnt make the mess that painting usually does so it is a fun activity to leave out in the garden for children to come and go from as they please. 

Leave a damp cloth alongside the chalk, water and paintbrush and children can easily wipe of their designs when they have finished ready to create a new one. 

If your child has enjoyed painting with water I'm sure they will love lots of our other easy outdoor art ideas too.


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