Mermaids of the Caribbean

Time

Art & Crafts

4 3 2 1 Early-Mid Stages

Benefits

Participants

Self Led or Group Activity

What you need

Coloured pens, pencils, crayons, paints, pastels
Collage materials – foiled paper, coloured mesh material, ribbons, buttons, etc
PVA or glue sticks (if needed)
A mermaid template to decorate (do a web search for these)
Plain paper (for those that would like to draw their own mermaid)

Intro

With their long flowing locks and sparkling fish tail, mermaids will always be a mystery of the sea.

Emmanuel Caliste was a fisherman, boat builder, sea cook and master of the violin. He was also an artist, well known for his depictions of mermaids. He says he was inspired by a vision of a mermaid at the age of 9. It was from then on that he began painting mermaids from his wooden home on the small island of Carriacou, just off the coast of Grenada.

Why not take a little inspiration from Emmanuel and create your very own colourful mermaid? By virtue of being mythical, you’re free to let your imagination run wild with wonderful colours and texture – have fun with everything from pens and paints, to shiny ribbons and twinkling foil!

Top tip

Doing this with a group? Just make the mermaid bigger, so everyone can decorate it together.

The Activity

Give each person a mermaid template or let them to draw their own
Lay out all the colouring and decorative materials on the table
Encourage the person or group to rummage through and think about how they would like to decorate their mermaid
Once decided, let the decorating begin!
Continue until the mermaid has been fully adorned
Spend time admiring everyone’s mermaids and perhaps spark discussions about other mythical magical animals. You could talk about Pegasus the winged horse, gnomes, leprechauns, centaurs or even the Loch Ness Monster – does it exist? Who knows!