Art Activities: Epsom Salt Painting
We have been enjoying simple art activities in the past few days. We did a 1 minute puffy paint art activity, we painted with large vehicles, painted with an electronic toothbrush and many more. All of these art activities are very easy to set up and need only a few things. Continuing in the same line, we did a fun and easy art activity with Epsom salt.
I started with adding a couple of heaping table spoons of epsom salt to 6 small bowls. I also set out brushes and a cup of water. Then my daughter added drops of food color and water to each bowl to make salt “paint”
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The salt art looked beautiful! But she had to scoop out the salt and make sure she had enough salt when creating on the paper. Besides that I figured that the paint would have much better effect if it were more vibrant and had a better texture. So we moved to another kind of paint and continued with our art activities.
This paint contained heaping tablespoons of Epsom salt mixed with liquid water colors and a bit of water( just a bit). As you can see the paint has a characteristic grainy texture which transfer beautifully to the paper.
The Epsom salt absorbs a large amount of liquid water colors. Keep adding liquid colors until you get a spreadable yet grainy mixture. Once you star painting the Epsom salt creates a sparking effect which only makes it more beautiful if you are doing this outdoors on a sunny afternoon. The art shines, literally.
She drew a beautiful jungle scene of course because my older loves anything wild life and we have done so many animal activities. Can you spot a giraffe, a lion and apparently a flying squirrel?
Both of us collaborated and explored painting with different colors side by side. Experimenting with different colors with varying textures has always been interesting for that kid.
Here are all our shiny salt art projects we did that sunny afternoon. It was so much fun!
Once she was done painting, she tried pour painting. All she did was pour all the colors in a pattern she thought was cool and started blending them with paint brushes.
Once the salt paint dried they turned out even more beautiful. The Epsom salt crystals shone like diamonds.
This is definitely open-ended process art. I’m not sure how to preserve Epsom Salt Painting, may be seal with hair spray?
If you haven’t tried the original raised salt painting, take a look at this post by clicking on the image. Wonderful!
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I saw this wonderful idea for the Epsom salt paint. I mixed the Epsom salt with corn syrup and food coloring to your desired consistency. . Paint and let dry for a few hours. It creates a beautifully shimmery effect. Works great in areas with low humidity.
It looks lovely. Maybe adding some pva glue into the paint mixture might help it stick. I think I will try it.
Hi, I like your idea, it will double the beauty of art. keep it up
This looks like so much fun! When you say you dont know how to preserve it do you mean “keep forever” or “keep for a week and hang on a wall”? I guess I am wondering if we did this on a canvas could we hang it on the wall or would the salt fall off once dry?
Yes Gina, the salt tends to fall off once the paint dries. But I have seen people spray this kind of art with a sealant.. I’m not sure though. I should look into it because the art turns out pretty colorful!
I’m not sure how you would preserve it either, but oh my, this is beautiful!
Ooh thank you Jackie. It’d be cool if we figure a way to save them. I loved the shiny art the kid made.