My Mini Pop Artists At Warhol Croydon

Research from the International Child Art Foundation has found that a child that is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, discover, innovate, and create intellectual property – key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twentieth century.

This is why exposing my litttle ones to as much art and culture as possible is of great importance to us as a family.

By this I don’t mean sitting in front of text books flicking through endless pages of text, but actually getting out and exploring which for me is a far more interesting way of gaining knowledge.

This weekend we took a trip into Croydon to explore the Warhol Croydon exhibition that has been bought to the streets of Croydon by the award winning RISE Gallery.

The street exhibition has been inspired by the life and works of Andy Warhol who was a leading artist in the 1960’s pop art movement.

A group of extremely talented artists have come together to create twelve instillations taken from the inspiration of his work and placed across the whole town centre.

There are plenty of free guided walks that you can book online to take part in or go it alone like we did.

The tour took us from the bustling high street full of shoppers to super quiet derelict buildings, from high rise offices to beautiful gardens and the quirky streets of Surrey Street Market.

We stopped and took time to take in each piece and the children really loved telling me their thoughts…some not so complementary and some hilarious.

It’s wonderful to see what others see when looking at the same piece of art and there is nothing thing better than seeing things through a child’s eyes.

The tour took us some time as I didn’t follow the route as marked out which from experience I would suggest doing.

With the tour complete we headed off to the Whitgift and Centrale Shopping Centre to take part in the Andy Warhol themed session that allowed Oscar and Frankie to become Mini pop artists for the afternoon.

We are familiar with Whitgift Weeenies Kids Club sessions that are put on throughout the year and are completely free to take part in.

The sessions can be anything from animal handling to art sessions and are suitable for children aged 3-10.

This session saw the children trying their hand at printing by carving out a picture into a foam board, covering it  with as much and as many different colours as they like and then creating their own Pop Art style masterpiece.

The friendly staff were at hand to help out where needed yet allowing the children free reign to really bring out their creative side.
Cleaned up and art in hand we finished off our jam packed day at RISEgallery they at the moment is homing some pieces of original artwork by Andy Warhol himself.

It certainly wasn’t a stuffy gallery that didn’t want enquisitive children around, we were infact all warmly welcomed, shown around the gallery and even had a chat about the art work that the boys had created.

The exhibition is on until the end of the month and there is still time to book in for this Sunday’s Wennies Kids Club session, so get yourself booked in as it’s something not to be missed!
*collaborated post

Chocolate Chip Muffins And Sweetie Jars For Daddy

  
The way to a mans heart, especially my husband’s is through his stomach. So what better Father’s Day present than lots of yummy food!

First up we made some scrummy white chocolate chip muffins.  Here’s how:

  • 140g Self Raising Flour
  • 140g Melted Dark Chocolate
  • 75g Cocoa Powder
  • 3tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 Egg
  • 200ml Milk
  • 150g Broken White Chocolate
  • 1tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 100ml Sunflower Oil

Preheat the oven to 200c/Gas Mark 6.

  
Mix together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl mix together the oil, milk, egg and melted chocolate.

   
 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together the the white chocolate chunks.  Do not over mix the mixture.

Place into 12 muffin cases and bake for 12 mins.

   
 

Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

  
Once they were cooled I placed them into an air proof tin all ready for tomorrow.

Next up was a very simple pressie.  All I did was get a couple of glass jars with screw top lids.  I filled them with hubby’s favourite sweets whist number three made some gift labels with handprints.

  
I threaded some ribbon through the gift tags and tied them round the top of the jars.

  

The children love making gifts for people and I find that people always find a homemade gift far more thoughtful.

Along with their cards I am sure that is going to be one happy Daddy upon receiving the wonderful gifts.

  

  

Quick And Easy Fathers Day Cards

Who doesn’t love little ones tiny hands and fingers, so what better way to decorate a Fathers Day card than to use their wriggly little fingers!!

A simple handprint makes a lovely picture and is wonderful to compare year after year.

  
I love to supplement my posts with pictures but tonight’s was hands on for me too so I’m a bit short on the picture front tonight.

For number five we just used the traditional way to hand print by sticking his hand in a blob of paint to cover the hand and then place the hand print onto the folded card to create the picture.

For number for we made a multicoloured hand by painting his palm and each finger a different colour.  Again we then placed the painted hand onto the folded card.

   
 

I waited for the cards to dry and then added a caption to the front and let the boys help me write a message inside.

The eldest two would sadly rather buy a card now and number three opted to write on the front of hers about the things she loves about her Daddy.

  
I would much rather have a thoughtful, handmade card from the children and I’m sure my husband is going to agree!!

Bread Painting Treat

After school my children are always both bored and hungry; so to avoid sticking them in front of the TV with a snack tonight we killed two birds with one stone and prepared our own snacks.

Painting bread is super easy and loads of fun.  It also requires very little equipment so I’m sure you will all have the bits indoors to get started.

  
Firstly get yourself some small pots and mix together some milk with a few drops of food colouring to create the colour that you would like.

We used oat milk so it would be ok for number fours allergies, but any milk would work.

Next grab some white bread and paint brushes and get to creating whatever design you wish.

   
          

Once they have created their master piece then allow to dry a little before toasting.

   
 

As you can see number four was not to happy with waiting!!

We simply buttered ours but you could add any topping you like.  We also saved a few slices to make colourful sandwiches for tomorrow’s lunch boxes.

   
 

  

Retro Crafts:Potato Printing

  

With a basket full of soft potatoes and some bored children on a rainy day I decided to go a bit old school and make some potato print pictures with them.

I can’t remember any of mine coming home with any potato printed items and I cant recall doing it myself since I was at school.

It’s such an easy craft activity that requires very little equipment or preparation.

  
We simply cut a few potatoes in half and number three then used her imagination to carve out some great shapes from the potatoes.

  
She created mainly raised shapes. Squares, triangles, simple lines and a little house.  There was also a heart that she dug into the potato thus using the outside of the potato to create the picture instead.

Once the shapes had been made we rolled a large piece of paper across the table and put some blobs of paint onto some paper plates and then left them to get creating.

   
     

It quickly turned into hand a finger painting too, but it’s great to give them free reign to produce whatever they like.

  
Number three and I are going to try some more intricate designs soon and hopefully make some snazzy wrapping paper.

What crafts do you remember from your childhood?