Painting The Rainbow

The Art of Waldorf Watercolor Painting

In Waldorf kindergarten classrooms, learning how to paint the rainbow is a delightful color mixing experience for the young children. It's challenging to imagine how a complete rainbow can be painted with only three colors, red, yellow, and blue!

Before beginning this art project with your children, it may be helpful to lay out your Playsilks in the rainbow order, or simply use a Rainbow Playsilk to help them imagine what the end result will look like. Sarah invented the Rainbow Playsilk by using just red, yellow, and blue. She discovered when the colors overlapped it gave the full spectrum of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple! 

What You'll Need:

• Watercolors in red, blue, & yellow
• 3 small jars
• Watercolor paper
• Watercolor paint brush
  
  

Steps

1. Add your watercolor paint to 3 small jars, filling generously with water.

2. Soak your watercolor paper in the sink (or tub!). This will give your rainbow a soft, dreamy look.  Begin the rainbow with your red watercolor.

3. Dip your brush into yellow and gently brush onto your paper. Blend with the red to make a section of orange.

4. Add blue to your paper and watch as the blue and yellow paint mix to make green. To make purple at the very end of the rainbow, use a small stroke of red paint over the blue.

Happy rainbow making!

xoxo,
Madlyn