Kids can do this easy chalk art activity with glue and chalk pastels. A fun process art activity for kids to do while learning about Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork. Post by Catalina Gutierrez of Redviolet Studio.
There’s a collection of books about famous artists written by Laurence Anholt that are wonderful, easy to read, with great illustrations. We have a few as part of our children’s book collection and my boys really like them. “Van Gogh and the Sunflowers” is the latest one that we acquired and we’ve been reading it a lot lately.
We usually have a routine at night where either myself or my husband reads a book they pick from their bedroom library. After reading it, they request a story…and then a song…and then they make up just about any other excuse to delay bedtime as much as they can.
MY LATEST VIDEOSBut don’t they all? I know I used to do it too when I was a child…Ha! It’s payback right?
As I was reading this book to them, I came up with this fun process art idea. We tried it a couple days later and they really enjoyed it! It was inspired by Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, which is just about one of the most amazing paintings of all times for me.
The swirls and vibrant colors in the sky; the movement he achieves by pushing the paint around while experimenting with light and gesture–can playfully be explored with this activity.
I really hope you give this easy chalk art project a try–I can assure your kid(s) will have a blast.
Easy Chalk Art for Kids
MATERIALS
- Pan or plastic plate (we got our pan at the Dollar Tree)
- White school glue
- Non-toxic chalk pastels
- Old credit card or gift card
- Toothpick
1. Pour the Glue
Set out your pan or plastic plate and begin by pouring glue to cover the whole surface. You might want to use your hands to shake it around a little so the glue drips all around.
And in the end, my 5 year old, who did this with me, ended up putting 2 fingers over the glue to spread it around a little faster.
2. Scrape the Chalk Pastels
Select the colors of chalk pastels you will be using and start “scraping” them with your card on top of the glue, covering the entire surface.
This was my son’s favorite part as he loved watching how the pastels turned into powder as he rubbed them against the card. He was very focused on covering everything. And I mean EVERYTHING (table included)!
3. Draw with your Toothpick
Once your pan is covered in pastels, bring out a toothpick and focus on drawing over the colors, making lines and shapes.
My son was very focused on making it look like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, only because he brought in the book and kept looking at it. He was also very interested in how the colors mixed together as he brushed them with the toothpick.
This was a really fun process art activity, suited for kids five years old and up as the pastel scraping can be a challenging for little hands.
Van Gogh inspired our easy chalk art, but you can certainly pair this project with the artist of your choice who explores movement, color and gesture.
Once we were done, my son showed it to everyone in the house, he was so proud of his creation. At this point, he has a clear idea of what process art is, so he knew we would have fun making it, enjoy the process, and then clean it all up.
And he was fine with that. I did save some really cool pictures though! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
About the Author
Catalina is the founder of Redviolet Studio, a mobile art experience for children. She is originally from Colombia but has been based in Miami for the past 10 years.
Catalina teaches after school art classes for preschool and elementary kids and sensory art & play classes for toddlers. She is very interested in the Reggio Emilia approach to education where the children lead their own learning process with the teacher being more of a facilitator rather than a voice who shows them where to look and what to find. She loves crafting with her boys and a good process art session.
Follow Catalina on Instagram and Facebook.
More Process Art Ideas for Kids
- Circle Art for Kids
- 6 Ways to Marble Paper
- Ooey Gooey Oily Process Art
- Salt Puffy Paint is SO Fun For Kids
Pin It For Later
What a beautiful project. I was intrigued by the book so searched my library. The author is actually Laurence de Anholt for others who may be searching.
Oh! Thanks for catching that, Virginia! I’ll correct that in the blog post. -Jean
Also, it is called “Camille and the Sunflowers”.
I really like this art project. When it is all dry can you remove it from the pan?
It depends on the pan, but that much PVA glue will take about 5 days to set properly and will become a thick layer of plastic with the chalk glued into it.
That thick layer you can peel off of most surfaces (so long as not too textured or “grippy”).
It’s like the acrylic “skins” that acrylic pouring artists make sometimes – PVA is a type of acrylic glue, “Polyvinyl acetate”, it dries to a type of vinyl plastic.
Quite tough too.
I’m interested to try this with both acrylic ink into the glue and those sticks of dried ink (Derwent Inktense) – they should be interesting.
Thanks for the great ideas! The book by Anholt is actually called “Camille and the Sunflowers”. It’s a great story and it has pictures from Van Gogh’s painting “The Bedroom” My kids loved reading the book after looking closely at this painting.