Painting on the light table - Just had to share another one...

Santa driving a car pulling a trailer filled with presents

You really have to love how inventive children are - one the four year olds has an interest in cars so for him it was more important to draw cars on the light table rather than snowmen and Christmas trees - but the atmosphere has been Christmassy as we have been making this images - singing Christmas songs together, as well as talking about the magic of the light and how the picture is transferred onto the paper... So I assume that the Christmas singing inspired this child to draw presents in the trailer followed by santa driving the car...

When I captured this child's image on paper he looked at me and said
"Suzanne, du är fenomenal" (Suzanne you are phenomenal) - I have to admit that I was quite taken aback - I thanked him and pointed out that it was him that had created the artwork and that it was indeed him that was phenomenal - big smiles and warm fuzzy feelings all round!

Since the children have shown a great deal of enthusiasm for this light-table artwork I will continue with it next week - introducing more colours, mixing colours, more texture by mixing in glitter, maybe shaving cream too - and some smells - peppermint essence and pepparkaka spices (a Swedish biscuit somewhere between gingerbread and lebkuchen in taste) as well as other Christmas spices - maybe whole cloves the children can grind in a pestle and mortar first... ooo the ideas are popping into my head as I write this... satsuma essence, cocoa....

I am looking forward to repeating the activity but at the same time deepening the experience - I am beginning to wonder how the children will react - will they just want to experiment or will there be some that will draw pictures - will these be the same children as last time? Or will children try something new. The skating style was not limited to just the youngest children - several of the older children that I had expected to draw and image did not (as they do spend lots of time drawing) and some of the younger children that I had expected to just "skate" had indeed made attempts to create an image - sometimes those images got skated over before the paper made the print (as I only did the print when the child said they were satisfied). I am also wondering whether I should take in those children that had a need to explore for a longer time in the atelier individually so that they are not stressed by onlookers asking "when is it my turn?". I have taken over a thousand photographs this week - and looking back on them will help me work out which children would like more paint on the surface and which children would prefer a thin covering - as several children enjoyed painting their arms and hands as part of the process - I am almost tempted to strip those children down to their underwear so that they have the chance to paint their whole body if they wish... (we do this quite often - and those children who painted their arms in this light table painting session are the same ones that cover their tummies with paint too). Since it is the Lucia celebrations, a celebration of light, painting on the light table seems rather appropriate...

Can't wait for next week...