Hello, my name is Jenny Staff and I'm an artist and I work as an Educator at the
National Gallery. Usually I'd be in the Gallery today but
instead I'm working from home so I thought we would investigate some
fun ways to play with water while we have a quick look at
Seurat's painting, 'Bathers at Asnières'.
This painting shows a group of men on the banks of the river Seine,
north of Paris. They are enjoying the hot summer weather lying in the sun, watching
the river flow by, dipping their feet in the water.
Two of them are in the water getting ready to swim.
Can you spot the little dog whose head is turned and is watching what's going
on in the water?
Here we can see one of the men who is so
hot he has rolled up his trousers and taken off his
shirt and jacket. He is enjoying relaxing and watching the
world go by. The sun is so hot he's wearing a hat to
protect his head and shade his face. I don't think he gets to do this too
much as his skin is very pale.
He seems very quiet and contemplative.
In this close-up we can see a young man waist deep in the water.
He's calling out to someone who's out of our view;
maybe it's his friend who's swimming across the river.
His orange hat and shorts are really vibrant against the blues of the river.
The water will be cool around his lower half while the sun beats down
on his chest and face.
In the background of the painting we can see
some people enjoying the river from a rowing boat.
The oars are moving gently through the water to carry them across the river.
The woman is holding a parasol to protect her from the sun.
In the far background we can see the chimneys and outlines of the factories
where the men work.
There is a dark plume of smoke
rising into the sky from one of the chimneys so that we know that there are
people still working in there while these workers have finished their shift.
So we know we're not in the middle of
the countryside but close to the hustle and bustle of ordinary life
which makes this lovely calm moment even more delicious.
We're going to look at some of the fun things that you can do with water
to explore the beautiful effects that you can get.
In my practice I like to experiment with lots of different materials
and enjoy the different effects that you get when you play with them.
I've been doing some playing with water at home and I've come up with some
really fun things that I thought you might enjoy playing with too.
I'm going to show you how to make some
frozen colours. You will need some food colouring,
some jugs, some water, an ice cube tray and a freezer.
First of all you need to mix up your food colouring with some water - not too much!
I've got a nice selection of colours here,
some of them are already mixed.
Then you carefully pour it into your ice cube trays,
trying not to mix up the colours.
It's lovely to make as many colours as you can
and then all you need to do is pop them into the freezer overnight
and then they'll be ready to play with the next day!
Here are our frozen colours. Aren't they beautiful? They're very cold
and they slip across the paper easily. You can play with these indoors
or outdoors and it's really great on a big sheet of
paper where you can move them around.
As the ice cubes melt
you can see the colours mixing and the trails coming together.
You can make pathways and watch them dance across the paper
We can put vibrant colours together like Seurat
and see how they make each other chime.
The painting of the 'Bathers' is really huge.
Seurat actually painted it in the studio
though he did visit the river several times to draw and sketch the scene.
I like to work on a really large scale so I'm going to take some materials outside
my house and go and play on the pavement
and make some really big toys.
You can find lots of things in your kitchen to play with.
I've got a bucket of water, a washed out spray gun,
a washing up bottle, some brushes, a jug.
You can use all these things to make different kinds of marks up and
down the street, spraying and squirting different
patterns onto the pavement.
it's fun to see how far you can squirt the water.
It's really good fun to do this with your family.
What designs can you make?
If you have some coloured chalk you can mix these with water to create paint.
It's a good idea to draw them out on the pavement first
and then add the water.
Here I've got some blue and some orange
next to each other, just like the Seurat painting.
It's really fun to mix colours together and layer them on top of each other.
The texture is lovely to touch and you don't have to worry about
cleaning them up as a rain will just wash them away!
I really hope that you enjoyed playing with water and that you've had a good go
with some of our different ideas. We'd love to see what you come up with
so it'd be great if you could share your photos online with us
by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Have a lovely summer!