Rain Painting

It's been rainy off and on these past few weeks -- the type of intermittent rain that allows just enough sun in between spells to lure you outside before sending you running back in again. The kind of rain that makes you turn to Pinterest in desperation for something, anything, to make the hours go a little faster. And that's how Anouk and I discovered rain painting.

The blog we read called for us to use plain white paper for this project but we started with some paper plates because they seemed more durable. Specifically, we recommend the uncoated kind, otherwise your colors won't soak into the paper but bead up and run right off. We couldn't stand for grinding up our nice Ikea watercolors (not with Ikea being a three-hour drive away) so we dabbed tempera paint, in primary colors, on our plates instead. Anouk is just starting to learn her colors, and I thought it would be a rudimentary lesson on how some colors combine to make others. Then we put on our rain gear and headed outside.

At first, there was only a light rain, so we walked around the backyard, holding our plates, watching the falling rain spatter the paint into new designs. Soon, though, it started to rain harder, so we left the plates on the deck and watched through the windows as the designs mixed and bled together.  And then it started to really rain -- and our neat splattery, blended designs became plates of rust-colored paint soup. Not very attractive.

But after it cleared up, we went out and emptied the water from our plates to find that the colored water had left behind a patterned, vaguely tie-dyed design.



I'm not entirely sure what we're going to do with them -- maybe make a mobile out of them? Or save them for collage making? -- but I do think the end result is worth saving, a nice spot of color in our rainy day.

Happy Memorial Day! Here's to some sunny weather for the holiday weekend.