Top 12 'Squish-and-Splatter' Famous Art Styles to try with kids for a Sensory-Rich Weekend - Goh Ling Yong
That familiar weekend question echoes through the house: "What are we doing today?" Before you cave and reach for the remote, what if I told you the answer was hiding in a splatter of paint, a squish of clay, and the vibrant history of art? Forget clean lines and perfect replicas. This weekend, we’re diving headfirst into the glorious, messy world of process art, inspired by the masters themselves.
Process art is all about the doing, not the finished product. It’s about the joy of discovery, the sensory explosion of color meeting paper, and the freedom to create without pressure. It’s where your child’s creativity can run wild, and where some of the best developmental magic happens—building fine motor skills, exploring cause and effect, and expressing big emotions. That's why here on Goh Ling Yong's blog, we're all about embracing the glorious mess to unlock our little ones' boundless potential.
So, roll up those sleeves, cover the table (and maybe the floor), and get ready for a sensory-rich weekend. We’ve curated a list of 12 famous art styles, deconstructed into fun, "squish-and-splatter" activities perfect for kids. Let's make some masterpieces!
1. Jackson Pollock's Action Painting
Known as "Jack the Dripper," Jackson Pollock famously created his art by dripping, pouring, and splattering paint onto enormous canvases laid on the floor. He used his whole body, moving around the canvas in a way that felt like a dance. This is the ultimate invitation for kids to get moving and messy!
For your own Pollock-inspired masterpiece, lay a large sheet of paper, an old bedsheet, or a canvas on the ground outside. Give your child various "tools" for applying paint—not just brushes, but also sticks, spoons, eye-droppers, and squirt bottles filled with slightly watered-down tempera paint. Encourage them to walk around, drip from up high, splatter from down low, and see how the colors mix and interact. It’s less about painting a picture and more about capturing energy and motion on the page.
- Sensory Tip: This is a full-body experience. Talk about the sounds the paint makes—the splat, the drip, the swoosh. Let them feel the rhythm of the movement. For easy cleanup, do this activity barefoot on a washable tarp and end with some fun hose-down time!
2. Vincent van Gogh's Impasto
Van Gogh is famous for his thick, textured brushstrokes, a technique called "impasto." You can see the paint literally rising off the canvas in works like Starry Night. This style is perfect for kids who love the tactile, squishy feeling of thick materials. It’s all about creating texture you can almost feel with your eyes.
To recreate this, you need to make your paint extra thick. You can use heavy-body acrylics, but a cheaper and more kid-friendly option is to mix standard tempera paint with things like flour, sand, or salt to give it body. Provide plastic palette knives, craft sticks, or even old gift cards for scraping and spreading the thick paint. Let them build up layers, creating swirls and peaks just like Van Gogh.
- Pro-Tip: Squeezing paint directly from the tube onto the canvas is incredibly satisfying for little hands. Focus on a simple subject, like a flower or a swirly sky, and let the texture be the star of the show.
3. Georges Seurat's Pointillism
Georges Seurat was a master of Pointillism, creating entire scenes out of thousands of tiny, distinct dots of color. From a distance, the dots blend together to form a complete image. For a child, this is a wonderfully focused and repetitive activity that feels fantastic.
This is where Q-tips become your best friend. Set out a palette of different paint colors and give your child a bundle of Q-tips. They can use them to create dot-by-dot images of trees, animals, or just abstract patterns. You can also use fingerprints, the eraser end of a pencil, or dot markers. The rhythmic dap-dap-dap is calming, and the result is always surprisingly beautiful.
- Try This: Draw a simple outline of a shape (a heart, a leaf, their initial) and challenge them to fill it in completely with dots. It’s a great exercise in patience and fine motor control.
4. Claude Monet's Dabby Impressions
As a founder of Impressionism, Claude Monet wanted to capture the "impression" of a moment, especially the way light played on a scene. His paintings are famous for their blurry, dreamy quality, created with short, quick brushstrokes. This is a perfect style to move away from precise lines and into expressive dabs of color.
Instead of traditional brushes, offer your kids sponges, crumpled-up paper towels, or cotton balls held with clothespins. These tools are perfect for dabbing and blotting paint onto paper. Encourage them to build up layers of color without over-blending them. They could try to create a garden of water lilies or a blurry sunset.
- Sensory Tip: Focus on the feeling of pressing and lifting the sponge. How does a wet, paint-soaked sponge feel different from a dry one? What patterns does a crumpled piece of foil make versus a soft cotton ball?
5. Henri Matisse's "Wild" Fauvism
Matisse was a leader of the Fauvism movement, which translates to "wild beasts." The Fauves used intense, non-realistic colors to express emotion. A tree didn't have to be brown and green; it could be orange and purple! This is a fantastic way to teach kids that there are no rules in art and to trust their creative instincts.
Give your child a set of bright, bold paints and tell them the only rule is to use their favorite colors, not the "right" colors. Let them paint a pink dog, a blue sun, or a rainbow-striped portrait of you. Use big, chunky brushes to make bold, sweeping strokes. The goal is to fill the page with joy and wild, expressive color.
- Conversation Starter: Ask your child, "If happiness were a color, what would it be? What about sadness? Or excitement?" This connects color directly to feeling, just like Matisse did.
6. Yayoi Kusama's Polka Dot World
Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary artist obsessed with polka dots, covering canvases, sculptures, and entire rooms with them. She sees them as a symbol of the universe and infinity. For kids, dots are a simple, repetitive, and deeply satisfying motif to play with.
There are endless ways to make dots. Provide round sponge brushes, dot markers (bingo daubers), or even bubble wrap. To use bubble wrap, simply paint a section of it and press it onto paper for a perfect grid of dots. Finger painting is another fantastic way to create dots of all sizes. Let them cover a whole page or even a 3D object like a pumpkin or a cardboard box.
- Pro-Tip: Try a "resist" technique. Give your child a sheet of paper and a set of round office stickers. Let them stick the dots all over the page, then paint over the entire thing. Once it's dry, peeling off the stickers to reveal the clean white dots underneath is a magical and satisfying reveal.
7. Piet Mondrian's Tape-Resist Grids
Mondrian is known for his abstract paintings featuring straight black lines and blocks of primary colors. While the final product is very clean, the process of making it can be a super fun, sensory activity involving one of our favorite art supplies: masking tape!
Have your child create a grid on a piece of thick paper or a canvas using masking tape. Encourage them to press the edges down firmly. Then, let them paint inside the shapes they’ve created using red, yellow, blue, and white. The best part is the "big reveal." Once the paint is dry, slowly peel off the tape to reveal crisp, clean white lines. The peeling action is a fantastic sensory and fine motor workout.
- Sensory Focus: The feeling of pulling the tape and the crinkly sound it makes is so rewarding. This project beautifully demonstrates cause and effect while creating a surprisingly professional-looking piece of art.
8. Andy Warhol's Pop Art Prints
Andy Warhol was a king of Pop Art, famous for taking everyday objects (like a soup can) and turning them into art through repetition and bright colors. Printmaking is a fantastic way for kids to explore this concept, as it’s all about making multiples.
You don't need a fancy printing press. A potato or a large carrot cut in half is the perfect stamp. Carve a simple shape into the flat side (a star, a heart—adults should handle the carving), dip it in paint, and stamp away! Sponges cut into shapes also work wonderfully. Create a grid on a large piece of paper and have your child stamp the same shape in different colors in each square, just like Warhol’s famous prints.
- Try This: Use your child’s own handprint as the stamp. Create a 2x2 grid and make a handprint in four different vibrant, contrasting colors for a personal Pop Art masterpiece.
9. Wassily Kandinsky's Musical Art
Kandinsky believed that colors and shapes could express sounds and emotions. He famously would listen to music while he painted, letting the melodies guide his hand. This is a beautiful, multi-sensory activity that connects auditory input with creative output.
Put on a piece of music and ask your child to paint what they hear. Try different genres! What does a fast, loud rock song look like? What about a slow, gentle classical piece? Encourage them to use swooping lines for melodies, sharp zig-zags for drum beats, and bright, happy colors for upbeat songs. There’s no right or wrong way to do it; it’s all about feeling the music. As the great Goh Ling Yong would agree, connecting different senses is a powerful way to deepen learning and expression.
- Pro-Tip: Use a variety of tools. Crayons are great for fast, energetic lines, while watercolors are perfect for soft, flowing sounds. Let them switch tools as the music changes.
10. Georgia O'Keeffe's Macro Nature
Georgia O'Keeffe is celebrated for her large-scale paintings of flowers, where she zoomed in so close that the petals and centers became grand, abstract landscapes. This activity encourages kids to slow down, look closely, and appreciate the small details in the natural world.
Bring a flower, a cool-looking leaf, or a seashell inside. Give your child a large piece of paper and ask them to fill the entire page with what they see. They don’t have to draw the whole object, just one small part of it, but BIG. This is a great opportunity to practice wet-on-wet watercolor techniques. Wet the paper first, then drop in colors and watch them bleed and blend together beautifully, just like the soft gradients on a flower petal.
- Sensory Focus: This is a very gentle, flowing sensory experience. The feel of a wet brush gliding across wet paper is mesmerizing. It’s a calming activity that promotes focus and observation.
11. Yves Klein's Body Painting
Fair warning: this one is the messiest of them all, but arguably the most fun! Artist Yves Klein was famous for his signature blue color and for his "Anthropometry" series, where he used human bodies as "living paintbrushes." We can adapt this in a kid-friendly way with handprints and footprints.
Roll out a huge sheet of butcher paper on the lawn. Pour non-toxic, washable paint into shallow trays (baking sheets work well). Let your little one step into the paint and then walk, jump, and dance across the paper. They can make handprints, elbow prints, and even try a full-body "snow angel" on the paper if you're feeling extra adventurous! This is pure, unadulterated sensory joy.
- Safety Tip: Make sure you use 100% non-toxic, washable paint. Have towels and a bucket of water or a hose at the ready for immediate cleanup. The memories (and the artwork) will be more than worth the mess.
12. Frida Kahlo's Mixed-Media Self-Portraits
Frida Kahlo is one of the most iconic artists of all time, known for her powerful and deeply personal self-portraits. She often incorporated surreal elements and traditional Mexican motifs. This is a wonderful inspiration for a mixed-media project where kids can explore their own identity using a variety of textures.
Start with a simple head-and-shoulders outline on a piece of cardboard or heavy paper. Then, let your child raid the craft box (or recycling bin) to bring their portrait to life. They can use yarn for hair, buttons for eyes, fabric scraps for clothes, and even dried leaves or flowers for a headband. The combination of gluing, cutting, and arranging different materials is a rich sensory feast.
- Pro-Tip: Provide a small mirror so your child can look at their own features while they create. It’s a beautiful way to encourage self-observation and celebrate their unique appearance.
Art isn't about staying in the lines; it's about pushing boundaries, exploring materials, and making a personal mark on the world. By channelling these famous artists, you’re not just keeping your kids busy for a weekend; you’re giving them permission to be messy, to be expressive, and to see the world through a more creative lens.
So, which famous art style will you and your little one be trying first? Will you be dripping like Pollock, dabbing like Monet, or stamping like Warhol? We’d love to see your sensory-rich, squish-and-splatter creations! Share your experiences in the comments below or tag us in your photos on social media. Happy creating
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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