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Working with paint is a human/ non-human interaction that invites bodies to collaborate, interact and interfere with each other (Sylvia, et al., 2016). Early childhood educators often use paint not just as a material to improve children's sensory skills but also as something to be used to explore their imaginations with. An inquiry into paint showed its viscosity, ability to dry and solidify, how it mixes, layers, spreads on surfaces and so on. Paint blurs the distinctions between the person who paints and the painted picture, melting away the boundaries between the human and non-human bodies making it an assemblage in itself (Sylvia, et al., 2016). The following artefacts are inquiries into paint and assemblage, using natural materials, kitchen materials and improvisation.

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Experimenting with what's available in the kitchen

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An inquiry into paint using kitchen materials

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An inquiry into paint using kitchen materials

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An assemblage is a human/non-human working group where each element is in a relationship with the other (Bennet, 2010). The above artefact was produced by experimenting with the different materials that were available in the kitchen. Different shades of colours were produced using materials like Coffee powder, chocolate, turmeric powder, garam masala which produced black, grey, yellow and orange colours. As I experimented with the materials, a shape around the area of experimentation that resembled the Australian continent was drawn. The different colours represent different natural elements present in Australia. The orange colour represents the rocky mountains, the yellow colour represents the desert sand, the blue colour for the water body, green for the natural beauty of the country and the black colour represents the mines present in the country.

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Extracting colours from flowers and leaves

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An inquiry into paint using natural materials

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An inquiry into paint using natural materials

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Nature is colourful and paint can be extracted from the various natural elements found on Earth. The above artefact results from experimentations done using leaves and flowers from my garden. The violet colour was extracted by squeezing a unique red flower, while the green was by leaves and a light pink shade by a lily. The following inquiry made me think about the time when ink and paint were not discovered and how ancient civilisations in Egypt and Africa used to use natural elements to extract colour to paint materials and make drawings. Activities involving painting using natural elements gives children in early childhood classrooms an opportunity to use their imaginative skills to think about which element gives which colour or how colour can be extracted from an element and can also help them in experimenting.

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Paint is a material that invites non-human/ human encounters and allows forces to interact and interfere with each other (Bennet, 2004). The above artefact results from experimentations and improvisations to brush strokes done using paint. What started as some simple brush strokes to experiment with the viscosity of paint and how fast it dries was turned into a meaningful picture using the ideas that appeared spontaneously to me. The picture represents a butterfly whose wings were made of two different colours. The colours red and blue were mixed together to get a black colour that formed the butterfly's body.  Paint is a common material that children and educators encounter in early childhood classrooms and it is something used to think with rather than just to improve sensory skills (Ingold, 2011).

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The following artefact was made during an experiment using different colours, the project was initiated without any pre-planned purpose but was a result of spontaneous ideas that came into my mind while inquiring with paint. The artefact represents the traditional flower patterns that are made in front of south Indian homes during the festival of Onam. The different colours represent the different types of flowers that are used to fill the different rings which form a circular pattern. The colours were painted onto the white paper not only with paint brushes but also using fingers and tissue paper as a part of my experimentation. It's is pretty common for children in early childhood classrooms to play around with paint, they use brushes, hands and even paint on each other's bodies.  Bodies in paint assemblages were always composites in-formation, shift in-form, creating-with (Manning, 2009).  These bodies, though, were not singular, already-formed canvases of the sensory-input model of developmentally appropriate early childhood practices (Sylvia, et al., 2016).

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Paper is an important material in everyone's day today and has its own flow, movements, histories and possibilities (Sylvia, et al., 2016). It can be bent, torn, written on, coloured, printed on, crumbled and so on.  These movements may be subtle, yet working with paper means one moves with the material in continuous motion, joining forces with it (Ingold, 2013), responding to its inclinations. Paper is an important component in early childhood classrooms and educators and children encounter it on a daily basis as it is used to write on, paint, experiment and play. The following artefacts are inquiries into a paper it's texture, its motions and how it reacts to paint.

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The following artefact was made during an experiment with a white piece of paper. During my inquiry, I found out that, Paper is a material that can be bent, torn, coloured on, made into shapes, decomposed, recycled, crumbled and so on. Paper is also an essential material in our daily life as it is used to write, be printed on, and share information. I was also thinking about the number of trees that has to be cut down to make the paper as it is made up of the pulp of the tree and how the digital revolution combined with recycling strategies have reduced the dependence on paper to an extent. The surface of the paper was flat and the texture was flat. During my material inquiry, the paper was folded in different ways initially to form shapes and as the experiment was going on the material started resembling that of a paper plane to which wings were added. Children and educators encounter paper as they use paper for colouring, making shapes, writing on and for play in early childhood classrooms on a regular basis.

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Paper has its own inclinations and is a material that has flow and movements of its own (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Paper can be bent, crumbled, coloured on, torn, decomposed, recycled and so on. The following artefact is a shoebox made completely of recycled paper. The use of recycled paper helped in saving millions of trees being cut as the paper is made from the pulp of trees. During the inquiry, it was found that the paper used to make the box can be torn, crushed, bent and be coloured on. The inside of the box was coloured using paint and the paper quickly absorbed the colour and dried it. The smiling face that was painted on the box symbolises the number of happy trees that were saved due to recycling. Paper is one of the most common materials that educators and children encounter in early childhood classrooms which they use for play, learning and experimenting.

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Both paint and paper are important and common materials that children and educators encounter in their early childhood classrooms on a daily basis. These materials can be used as something to think with rather than just as mediums to improve their cognitive and sensory skills.

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Bennet, J., 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. 1 ed. England: Duke University Press.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Journal of Leisure Research, 24(1), pp. 93-94.

Ingold, T., 2011. Redrawing Anthropology: Materials, Movements, lines. 1 ed. UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Manning, P. K., 2009. Reflections on ‘Two Concepts of Rules’. Journal of classical sociology, 9(4), pp. 429-449.

Murphy, S. & Bennet, P., 2004. Health Psychology and Public Health: Theoretical Possibilities. Journal of Health Psychology, 9(1), pp. 13-27.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, Veronica, et al. Encounters with Materials in Early Childhood Education, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/detail.action?docID=4649662