Painting with Toy Trains on Canvas
Posted by Jessica Petersen on Feb 2, 2013
Painting with wheeled toys is nothing new — and this certainly wasn’t the first time we did it — but here’s the Little Engineer’s latest twist on it. His ideas led the project deeper into the realm of pretend play, and resulted in a pretty cool end product.
Not that the process isn’t the most important thing, but I really enjoy looking at this painting on our wall. It evokes something organic, like tall grass or saplings, and the tracks of a train yard at the same time, and that seems to resonate with us. After all, one of our favorite things we’ve done was learning about trees with our wooden train tracks.
The engines lined up, waiting to enter “the sheds.”
I had wanted the Little Engineer to either squirt or dab the paint all over the canvas, but he asked me to put puddles of color all along one end. It turns out these were “the sheds”, and we needed an engine for each color.
I recommend using Take’n'Play or other diecast trains for this project, because they can be washed off without too much worry. The chunky, plastic Discover Junction Thomas trains would work too. We use those outside and in the bath, and they hold up well to water. Make sure to choose engines that don’t have any electronics to ruin. And when you dry the trains, don’t leave them to sit in a puddle of water, like I did with a couple of ours this time when I forgot to move them after washing them (oops).
Rolling Spencer down the line
After lining them up just right — I think he was trying to match engine color to paint color as much as possible, which took some thinking because some engines didn’t have a perfect match — Little Engineer put them one by one into the paint and drove them more or less straight across the canvas. The lines had slight, natural curves to them that echoed each other, caused by him standing at the center of the table and moving only his arm across himself. Maybe this is why the lines feel organic to me; they’re rooted in the natural motion of the human body.
Thomas and Rosie patiently waiting their turns
He drove them across the canvas like that several times, always returning the engines to their original color or, in his mind, stall in the shed. The whole time, he was talking, narrating what the trains were doing on the railway.
Train tracks, or tall grass?
Then he started branching out, going straight for a moment then veering to cross other tracks. In some cases, he tapped the engines a few times at the very end of the “track”. I was a little disappointed, because I’d grown unintentionally attached to my own interpretation of the painting, but on the other hand the lines were starting to look like a train yard, which was cool.
Painting switch tracks
Because he was pretending the trains were chuffing in and out of the sheds, the Little Engineer stuck with the project longer than he usually does when I give him a canvas to paint. And somehow, by the time he got bored of painting, the organic look to the lines had returned.
Hanging on our family room wall
And here it is on our wall. We have a lot of other rainbow colors in our family room, so it fits right in. I need to spray it with a fixative sometime soon. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with that.
As I’ve been writing this, I’ve realized the Little Engineer’s painting was doing what art should do: making me see something in a new way, make connections I had missed before. There is something organic about the curves of train tracks. Unlike roads, there can be no sharp, sudden corners. Everything has to flow with the inertia of a massive train. So maybe there’s something to that. But as interesting as those thoughts were, I definitely spent more time watching the Little Engineer and the alternating intensity and joy he brought to driving his trains through the paint that day.
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Hi, I'm Jessica. While playing trains day in and day out for the last two years, my Little Engineer and I have had a lot of fun and learned so much together. I'm excited to share our discoveries with other people who have young train enthusiasts in their lives. Read more about our family and how Play Trains! came about... 
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The Train Artwork looks AWESOME!! Thomas truly can do all things : ) We’ve done this type of project with cars– so fun!
Kristina recently posted…Penguin Week
He can, can’t he? It’s hard to believe I ever didn’t want Thomas in our lives.
It’s really fun…I’ve even done it when I was art assistant at preschool just by pouring lines of paint on the table and setting cars down. I was bored because no one wanted to paint with me before that, but suddenly I had plenty of takers!
Ooh, I could see my son really, really enjoying this!
Katie @ Gift of Curiosity recently posted…Individual learning time
It’s very likely that he would!
This is one of the cutest things I have ever seen! Your pictures are great. Thanks for sharing at Share it Saturday
Leanne
Thanks, and thanks for stopping by!
Love the end result, and what a great series of photos. I really love the one where the trains are all lined up, ready to plough through the blobs of paint. What fun!
Thanks! I enjoyed taking the photos. And I actually had to leave all the best ones out, because they were all the ones with my son looking super cute as he talked to the trains.
I love this idea – just wish I still had little ones to do it with! The result was really artistic.
Mary recently posted…Double Wedding Ring Quilt – Here Goes!
Thanks! And there’s no reason us adults can’t do it, too.
I’ve been tempted to try myself.
What a fun way to create art! I’ll have to keep this in mind. E loves to paint!
Di Linh recently posted…The Sweet, The Awesome, The Funny, And The Funny Only In Retrospect
Definitely keep it in mind! It’s a lot of fun.
Nice to see you around!
This is such a great activity and I would love to feature it in an upcoming Ten for Tuesday Things That Go post – I would of course link back. Here is my latest post. http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2013/02/ten-for-tuesday-things-that-go-series.html
Jen Fischer recently posted…{Ten for Tuesday} Things That Go Series – Week #6 – Community Helpers
Yes, of course!
What a gorgeous project! We’ve been working on making some customized art to go our our playroom walls, and one of the things we’ve been doing it priming old, second hand store canvases, and painting over them. I think we’ll try something similar to this with one of them. Thanks for the inspiration!
jackie recently posted…chocolate and strawberry play dough
That’s a great idea. I’ve been buying them at Joann Fabric because they’re always 40% off, plus a coupon, but second hand would be even cheaper. Have fun!
Jessica recently posted…Wooden Luke from Blue Mountain Mystery
Love! And Pinned! My son loves to paint his trains, so this will be great fun for him.
Great! He might enjoy the engine paint shop activity we did recently (http://play-trains.com/engine-paint-shop-train-color-matching-activity-for-preschoolers/). My son really likes painting his trains, too!
What a great craft/project for boys (and girls, my girls love cars & trains). It is not always that easy to come up with great ideas for crafting with boys and this is just brilliant! Thanks for sharing on We Made That!
I’ve used the cars/trains + paint ploy to get boys to come hang out with me when I’m art assistant at preschool…it really does draw them in. Thanks for stopping by!
Jessica recently posted…DIY Felt Valentine Train
My boys love painting with cars, trucks and trains, but none of our paintings have ever turned out like that! Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing with The Sunday Showcase. I will be featuring you tomorrow.
Allison recently posted…Laundry Tips from a Busy Mom of Four
Wow, thank you!
Jessica recently posted…DIY Felt Valentine Train
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this on Tuesday Tots. I’m featuring it this week. It turned out great. Here’s the link and feel free to grab a featured button if you like
http://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2013/02/6-simple-ways-for-kids-to-get-arty.html
Debs recently posted…Counting & Number Recognition with Paper Tubes. Playful Maths
Wonderful! Thank you so much for featuring my post.
I loved this idea! It is one of the best I have seen lately!
Thank you!
What a wonderful painting and such a fun way of creating it. We may have to give it a try at my house. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Carrie recently posted…Peg Doll Animals
Great! If you do, I’d love to hear/see how it turns out.
Jessica recently posted…DIY Engineer Heart Pendants and Ornaments
What a fun project! I can’t wait to try it with my little guy. And, I’m SOOO excited to have found your blog after you left a comment on mine. My son is train obsessed. I can’t wait to spend some time on here looking at all your fun ideas.
Sam @ Thrive 360 Living recently posted…Easy DIY Play Donuts
Wonderful! I’m so excited you found it, too! I love connecting with other parents of little train enthusiasts.
Hi! I wanted to let you know that I loved this activity so much that I featured you on my new blog post “Winter art games!”.You can see it here: http://maros-kindergarten.blogspot.gr/2013/02/blog-post_16.html
I would love your feedback! Have a nice weekend!
Wonderful! Thank you so much. I’ll go check out the post now.
Jessica recently posted…Valentine Counting with Thomas and Percy
Wow, yours look like proper little works of art! Don’t think my daughter will stick to straight lines at the moment – she just loves diving in there and getting messy, creating crashes, or ‘derailments’
x
Christina E (@Beadzoid) recently posted…Pre-school fun: Train-painting and volcanic eruptions!
That’s what I think is so cool about them…they’re all different! My son is definitely the “proper railway procedures” type, so even when paint is involved the trains had to behave like Sir Topham himself was supervising.
Jessica recently posted…Train-Themed Easter Egg Fillers
This is such fab idea and what a brilliant painting at the end!
I would love for you to link up at the Empty Your Archive party which has fun painting ideas as one of it’s themes this week – Alice @ Mums Make Lists x