Pantry Painting

​Like most of the United States and the world, for that matter, I am in quarantine.  We are to be staying at home, not going out unless it is necessary for medicine of groceries, and even then, you have to stay 6 feet from people, which is called social distancing.  As an art teacher I wanted to give my students a challenge of painting to help release stress and it would be a great distraction from their other online schoolwork.  What happens if they don’t have any paint at home?  I don’t want them to go out to the store for a set of watercolors or have to buy something on the internet that might not be shipped for a week.  I found many things around my house that could be used as paint.

​The first thing I did was to sample all the pantry items by mixing them and doing swatches to see how they painted.  I mixed all of the power spices with hot water and let them sit for an hour, hoping they would grow in intensity.  
The first row is Beet juice-from a can, Tea, and Paprika.
The second row is Coffee, Mustard Seed, and Kool-Aid.
The last row is Baking Cocoa, Turmeric, and Sanding Sugar, or it is also called Sprinkles.

​I worked with the coffee to create a coffee value scale in the little mountain landscapes.  I painted the entire square first, then I painted the mountain range and down on each to build up the coffee color.

​I mixed up the pantry items to create a background color block, dried it with my hairdryer, and then drew on top of that design.  The attached video is sideways but shows a spread up version of the project.

​I’m surprised; you never know what you might have in your house to create art.
Happy Painting!