Big activities with a small footprint.
Mud painting is a fun way to explore nature and get a little bit messy!
Watch our wonderful video and follow our instructions to help you make a beautiful artwork using nothing but nature. We recommend you wear old clothes when doing this activity and you may need an adult to help.
You will need:
- Mud
- A long piece of paper, cardboard, fabric or any surface to paint on to
- Sticks & leaves or flowers as your paintbrushes
- An old tub to collect some soil
- A smell amount of water to create your mud
- Old Clothes
- Something to wipe and clean your hands with once you have finished
Instructions:
- Find some mud! This is an activity to do outdoors, either go into your garden or visit your local park.
- Take a long piece of cardboard, paper or fabric as your canvas to paint on to. If you do not have any of these things why not use a tree to paint on instead? Make sure your paper doesn’t blow away by placing rocks or pebbles on top in each corner.
- Time to explore, what natural items can you find around you as paintbrushes?
We think that twigs, leaves, flowers and grass are always wonderful to draw with.
- Using an old container collect some mud! If it has been raining you may be able to use mud straight from the ground. If the soil is dry, take a small amount in your container and then add water and mix thoroughly to make your paint.
- Using the leaves, twigs, grass and flowers your found start to paint!
What different types of marks do your natural paint brushes make? Are there some better than others?
- If it’s a sunny day why not try making shapes with your shadows and painting around them.
Save your artwork and work in to it another day – or start again by recycling your paper or cardboard.
Have you see our growing guide for sunflowers on our Spring Thing activity webpage. Why not take a look and have a go at something else?
