Round Robin Painting...

So last week I did a fun thing with a group of friends. We did a prompted round-robin painting, with each of us starting with a canvas and then passing the canvasses around the group. We had a series of prompts that we followed, suggestions like "create an odd number of circles on the canvas" or "draw three straight lines on the canvas." Since our group included some visual artists and some who are, say, a bit more paint averse this was a great technique for us. If you look carefully at the picture above you can see that we had lots of snacks and wine and that our water cups (for washing the paint brushes) looked exactly like our wine cups. That was a mistake.

We made some really great paintings, and it was nice how the best ones went home with the folks who were the loudest about 'I can't paint!' when the project got started!

If you want to do this with a group, send me a note and I will send you the prompts. My friends complained a lot about mine, but they did them anyway. Ha. I have to say, it was lots of fun. Get a group together and try it.
(I actually led this activity. I learned it in an art therapy class I took long ago at Ohio State. It was supposed to be good for breaking down barriers in a talk therapy group. I didn't tell this to my friends until the night was over. I didn't want them to think I thought they had ANY problems talking, because, trust me, they don't.)