Summer Art Projects: County Fair Entries!

Ever since I was a little kid, my siblings and I would enter artwork in the county fair's art exhibit.  With my oldest now 5, I figured it was about time we start the tradition in our house too.  I remember trying to create something for every category that I could when I was little....I loved collecting the ribbons over the years and still have them all in a shoebox! 

When I showed the boys my old ribbons they got excited and really wanted to make some entries for our county fair.  I explained to them how the entries are categorized by medium.  So, one rainy day we worked on pastels and tempera paints...

Sammy drawing a monster truck with my old pastels from college!

Toby painting...something...with tempera paint! ;-)

Too nice outside to sit in the kitchen and make art?  Do it outside!!  Here we are doing marker and colored pencil pictures out on the deck...

Sammy working with markers, Toby with colored pencils.

 I do make it a point to not "help" draw anything on their pictures!  They have to be all done by them!!  If they are wondering how to draw something, I'll draw on a separate piece of paper to show them how I'd do it (like the row of different trees on the table above), and then let them use that for reference. 

Sammy drawing a camping scene

Above Sammy is drawing a camping scene.  If they start losing interest or running out of ideas to fill the page, strike up a conversation and ask some questions!   "What else do you do when you camp?  What do you see in a campsite?  What color should that car be?  Is there a person in there?" etc...this always gets my kiddo adding more and more detail!

I've been collecting frames at garage sales and thrift stores and have been having fun framing their art!  It's amazing how nice it all looks in a nice frame!  I am even going to join in the fun this year and enter a couple of my own paintings and photos.  We'll see how it goes.

At least I know that, ribbons or no ribbons, we will have had fun making art and seeing it on display at the fair this year!  If you're in Waconia, MN next week, stop on into the Carver County Fair and see if you can find some Fleener art!  (while you're there, be sure to stop by my face painting booth in the commercial building!) Stay tuned for more photos of the results...