Mud Painting

My children love to draw and paint.  They also love to play in the mud.

Evidently, artist Henry Neubig had the same passions as a child.

He took his passion, no matter how muddy and messy it appeared to others,

splattered it over the canvas of his life...

and made it into something beautifully colorful and enriching.

Henry Neubig's "Louisiana Mud Paintings" were on display at the Henning Cultural Center through the month of April.  The girls and I finally got a chance to see the exhibit.  Neubig's paintings are original and innovative.  He uses real dirt and clay dug up around the state of Louisiana, adds egg yolk and turns the mud into paint.  The various minerals in different regions of the state are what determines the carnival of colors:

• Green earth color ~ from greenish mineral called glockenite found in Shreveport, La.
• "Bunkie Brown" ~ from the cotton fields of Avoyelles Parish
• Mauve color ~ from St. Francisville, La.
• Yellow color ~ Tunica Hills and Thompson Creek
• "DuLac Black" (pure swamp mud) ~ comes from DuLac, near Houma, La.

Makes you rethink the times you told your child to stay out of the mud, huh?

So this week, let your child do some Mud Painting of his own.  My children have done this on our patio slab which makes easy clean-up.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Wow! I was expecting Jackson Pollock style paintings, Neubig's are so realistic!

[Amy]

Neat! My girls will like this. :)

[t]

these are lovely paintings; thank you for sharing your experience!