Fabric Paintings

Even though we adore art projects here, my boys have only completed one art project so far this school year...but it's a great one!  My boys worked on their "fabric paintings" over two Friday afternoons and a long Friday evening.  They both enjoyed their projects so much they continued to work on them long past the time I had set aside for art class!

As with the vast bulk of our art projects, we followed the instructions for one of the projects in our Atelier Art curriculum.  We are currently working through Level 5.  For a thorough review of the Atelier Art curriculum, you can read my post at Curriculum Choice.


To prepare for the Fabric Painting project, I first gathered up all of the following materials that I already had on hand:

• felt in lots of different colors
• yarn in different colors
• various kinds of fabric trim, pom-poms, and glitter jewels
• fabric scraps in different colors and patterns
• tacky glue
• 3-D fabric paint.

I also made a trip to our local fabric and craft store to purchase burlap for the base of the paintings and some more interesting fabrics.  I purchased 1/8 of a yard of a small pile of fun fabrics with various prints and colors.  Needless to say, my boys were excited about the project just by looking at the large selection of materials they had from which to choose!

After watching the video lesson, my boys first sketched out a design for their project on a large sheet of paper (18" by 24").  As they were sharing their ideas and working on their sketches, I kept reminding them that they would need to recreate their drawing using fabric so they should avoid including a lot of small details.

Duncan's idea was to make a peaceful scene with houses, cars, a body of water, and a bridge.  Mason's idea was to make a fantastical, rather surrealistic scene featuring a Denny's restaurant. 

After much work, both of my boys finished their Fabric Paintings.  I was SO happy with how their projects turned out.  Both of their fabric paintings looked fabulous!  While this was definitely a time-consuming project, I think the results and the positive experience are definitely worth it.

I just love the cupcake sky above Denny's!  Mason's preference for bright colors and surrealistic images are evident in his project.  

Duncan took such a long, careful time with his project.  I really like all of his different colored houses!

I think our new school year is off to a slow, but successful art start!