300 Excuses - Autumn Leaves
I admit, I was late, but went, though I’d rather stayed in bed, and said I wouldn’t help others ever again. Haha.
We ended up painting with autumn leaves.
We? Me! She kept talking. It is the sort of thing 3-year-olds do.
I took the leaves smeared with paint home. They’re pretty unlike the painting.
3.9.26
300 characters about #today
We used to paint with fruit and vegetables during our elementary art class.
There was a part of the banana, I'm not sure what it's called. Somewhere near the branch or the tree. They have very nice pattern that you can make a stamp with. But because of language barrier back then, my father spoke English but not much of our national language, Malay which was used at school. It was only my first year and I can't even speak the language.
So we got the wrong part, the actual banana. Even the teacher laughed about it. But at least I got to have banana as snack that day. Okra has very nice pattern too. Potato is versatile but we will need to carve out the patterns.
I also remember how we used to carve shapes out of potatoes and use them as stamps. Fennel works well for stamping too, and you can also colour with coffee and beetroot – the list goes on. It’s just not done much anymore, and I think one reason these days is that it’s seen as a waste of food. We actually did the latter in a workshop, but I don’t like it. When it comes down to it, you can, of course, use anything for painting; as toddlers, we did this with our hands – we even have finger paints for toddlers. Brushes were only introduced later. Nowadays, you can use anything again – from sponges to cups to bits of wood or whatever – it’s certainly creative, but sometimes I also think it’s a shame that the basics of drawing and painting aren’t taught any more.
Funny anecdote about that banana – it made me laugh, and you’re right: at least I had something to eat and the rest didn’t. Did the teacher give you anything to stamp with, or is that not allowed? How come you didn’t learn the language, or were you struggling at school? Children do pick things up quickly, though – my two youngest learnt Hungarian within three months simply because nobody spoke English or German, let alone Dutch.