About you (yes, you!) – and the story behind Pattern Play Collaborative Art
Maybe you’re an educator, facilitator, parent, community worker or youth leader. Maybe you’re looking for an art activity for a group, or you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to get a whole bunch of people making one artwork together.
That’s where Pattern Play comes in.
I’ve developed Pattern Play Collaborative Art to make group painting simple, accessible and fun. I’ve used it with children, teenagers, adults, people with disabilities, school groups and community groups – and I’ve spent years figuring out what helps people get started, keep going and enjoy making art together.
This is the story of how I got here, and how Pattern Play developed along the way.
What you’ll find here
You’ll find lots of practical ideas for creating collaborative art with groups, from getting started with a blank canvas to adding the final details.
You can learn the Pattern Play process through my free Beginner’s Guide, more than 200 articles, or my podcast, Easy Collaborative Art.
I’ve also created Pattern Play resources to make group projects easier to run, including pattern prompts and colour schemes designed specifically for collaborative artwork.
The spark behind the art
Pattern Play started with a pretty simple idea: people can make great art together.
It doesn’t matter if everyone in the group has a different level of experience. They don’t all have to paint the same thing, and they certainly don’t have to know what the finished artwork is going to look like.
Give people a few simple things to try, let them play with colour and pattern, and keep building on what is already there.
That’s the basic idea behind Pattern Play.
But I didn’t sit down one day and invent it. It developed over many years of working with groups, trying things, changing things and noticing what helped people get stuck in.
Here’s how that happened.
Meet your guide to collaborative art
Hi, I’m Charndra.
I’m the artist behind Pattern Play Collaborative Art, and I’ve spent a lot of years making art with groups of people.
I’ve worked with toddlers, school students, teenagers, adults and seniors, with groups ranging from a handful of people to hundreds. I’ve worked in schools, playgroups, community spaces and public places.
And along the way, I kept noticing the same thing: people who were convinced they couldn’t paint often surprised themselves once they had an easy way to get started.
That’s what sent me down the path I’m on now.
Here’s where it began.
My journey: From art teacher to collaborative art guide
I started out as a secondary art teacher, working across metro and country schools for 12 years. I taught everyone from Year 6 students through to adults in a local TAFE leisure course.
Like most art teachers, I was a generalist, so I taught drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and plenty of other things.
I always enjoyed creating murals with kids. Back then, though, they were more of an occasional activity.
It was only later that I started noticing what happened when people made one artwork together.
When you’re all working on the same canvas, your bit doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s just one part of a much bigger artwork. You can try something, someone else can add to it, and suddenly your little bit has become part of something pretty amazing.
I think that takes a lot of the pressure off.
People are often much more willing to have a go when they aren’t worried about whether they’re “good at art”.
When people are relaxed and having fun, they get stuck into what they’re doing. That’s when I see the really interesting stuff happen.
And if you’re laughing, you’re learning.
Using success strategies to build creative confidence
Then I had three children, and my second child was born with special needs. I became one of his behaviour therapists, and through that work I learned about Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA).
One of the things that really stuck with me was the importance of setting people up for success.
Break things down. Give someone a clear next step. Make it possible for them to succeed, then build on that success.
I call these Success Strategies, and they became an important part of the way I developed Pattern Play.
I started seeing that the same approach could be useful when people were making art.
If someone is standing in front of a blank canvas thinking, I don’t know what to do, telling them to “just be creative” isn’t necessarily very helpful.
Give them something they can actually do.
A simple pattern. A colour to use. A mark to make.
Once they’ve had a bit of success, they’re often much more willing to try the next thing.
That idea has stayed with me throughout the development of Pattern Play Collaborative Art.
Discovering the power of process art in playgroups
During this time, I also ran our school’s tiny local playgroup – a place where parents and kids could come together before the children started school.
At first, we decorated a large cardboard box each week using process art.
The kids just wanted to play and explore, so I gave them things to try without worrying about what the finished result was supposed to look like. We’d pull out the box, add some collage, blue paint, stencilling, stamping or even nail polish, then pop it back in the corner until the next week.
It worked really well for our little shared space because we didn’t have room for piles of paper and artwork to dry.
Then came a breakthrough: collaborative canvases.
A 1m x 1m canvas is a huge surface to play on!
Each week we’d bring out our shared canvas for five or ten minutes, or sometimes longer. We’d choose one colour and a new or favourite technique, then simply add our marks.
There was no finished picture to copy or colour in. We were building something unique together.
The kids were also learning to communicate and cooperate as they painted. They had to share the space, work around each other and sometimes compromise when someone was getting in their way.
And the parents loved it because they didn’t have to take home piles of paper with bits stuck all over them!
By the end of the year, we had a surprisingly rich and sophisticated collective artwork that the kids were incredibly proud of.
At the end of every week we’d look at “Our Artwork” and give ourselves a round of applause.
A new path: Inclusive collaborative art with children
During this time, I was invited to run a session at Holiday Care. I suggested a collaborative art activity and created the Autumn Banner with the children, inspired by the Circle Paintings of Hiep Nguyen.
It was such a fun, inclusive experience that I started running a project each school holidays, then added after-school sessions during term time.
Gradually, I found myself developing a system that worked for all ages and abilities. There was no judging, grading or assessing. Just encouragement, play and lots of opportunities to build creative confidence.
I went on to run many projects with my ‘Painting Pals’ as I refined and expanded my process. The kids loved it, especially those whose school no longer had an art teacher.
It felt good to give them hands-on creative experiences that built their confidence and gave them real moments of artistic pride.
Scaling up: From group projects to community murals
Around the time of the Autumn Banner, I ran a group art session with adults, and it was a hit.
That same month, I facilitated my first community mural with the same group of people. I was all in.
These were people who hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since high school, and now they were creating a public mural together!
I coined the term Inclusive Social Artist to describe the work I was doing: helping groups of people create something together through freeform, expressive art.
Since then, I’ve led more than 60 collaborative art projects with over 2,000 participants across South Australia.
And I still love every project.
How pattern prompts help fast-track creative confidence
As I continued leading school murals and community art sessions, I started noticing something. The simple patterns I offered people were often the thing that got them started.
For someone who was hesitant about painting, having a clear pattern to try gave them a way in. It was something they could actually do, rather than standing in front of a blank canvas wondering what to paint.
So I started developing more and more pattern prompts.
First came Easy Pattern Play Pages. These themed sheets gave people the option of copying a pattern directly or using it as a starting point to create their own version. Copying is a natural part of learning to make art. You start by trying something you’ve seen, then gradually your own ideas start to take over.
Then came the Printable Pattern Play Cards. Each set has 48 cards, and the cards can be chosen by the individual or selected to suit the artwork or the needs of the group.
Project after project, I kept seeing the same thing. These simple prompts gave people of all ages and abilities a way to start painting, keep going and feel proud of what they were creating together.
(Evolution of Pattern Play Prompts )
Why Pattern Play works
Everything I’ve developed, from the Beginner’s Guide to Collaborative Art to the Pattern Play Cards and the 7 Group Art Colour Schemes, has grown out of these real-world experiences with kids, parents, teams and communities.
Over time, I noticed that collaborative art works best when the process is simple and structured, with a clear next step for people to follow.
That sounds pretty obvious, but it makes a big difference. Too many choices can leave people wondering where to start. Give them one simple thing to try, and they can get stuck in.
That became the foundation of the Pattern Play method: a simple, structured process that helps people of all ages and abilities get involved in group painting.
And YOU…
You don’t need to be an expert artist to lead a collaborative art project.
You might be a teacher, youth leader, parent, facilitator or community worker. You might have lots of art experience, or hardly any. The important thing is having a simple process to follow and a few tools to help you get people started.
That’s what I’ve created Pattern Play for.
If you’d like to have a go, join my email list below and I’ll send you the free Beginner’s Guide. It walks you through your first group artwork using a simple cool colour scheme I call “Forest.”
You can also explore my “How to” guide to see how the Pattern Play process works from start to finish.
Before long, you’ll have your own group artwork to show for it.
A quick how-to guide
Here’s a simple way to create a collaborative artwork using the Pattern Play method.
1. Messy Playing
Start with a shared canvas and get everyone painting.
Use big brushes to add circles, spirals and arches from the edges. Add clusters of marks such as dots, dashes and smiles. Let the marks overlap and build up a playful base layer.
Tip: Big brushes help everyone loosen up and get painting!
This stage pairs beautifully with the Mark Making and Circle Play activities in my easy Pattern Play Pages.
2. Exploring
Now start adding repeating patterns.
Use a few related colours and use rainbows, zigzags, leaf shapes, more circles or whatever patterns catch your eye. Medium brushes give you more control and let you vary the lines and fill some of the spaces.
Tip: Try keeping to one colour family at a time, such as warm colours or cool colours. It helps the different layers work together without making the artwork too complicated.
The Pattern Play Cards are great for this stage. Pick a card, have a go at the pattern and see where it takes you.
3. Bling!
This is where you can bring out the paint pens and add the details.
Outline, highlight and doodle over the patterns you’ve already created. You can repeat shapes from the earlier layers, add little details or just find places that need a bit of extra attention.
This stage is often quieter and more focused. People slow down, look closely at the artwork and add those final touches that bring everything together.
Tip: Paint pens are great for clean lines and fine details, and they’re popular with kids and adults alike.
Simple steps. Shared creativity. Art made together
✨ “I enjoyed having complete creative freedom and knowing that it didn’t need to be perfect. I noticed that students and teachers alike said it looked cool, and they wanted to join in. My favourite stage was the fine details; it allowed me to be really creative. I learnt that I’m allowed to not be perfect; I can go outside the lines and over the top!”
- Bella, from a school group creating a spontaneous mural using Pattern Play Collaborative Art.
FREE Guide + Mini Course: Learn the Easiest Way to Run a Collaborative Art Project
Sign up to get the Beginner’s Guide and a short email course that shows you how to plan, start, and guide your first Pattern Play project with confidence.
You’ll get weekly creative tips and group art ideas from me.
Bonus: You’ll also receive a special offer inside.
Your free guide arrives instantly after you confirm your email.
You can unsubscribe anytime.
👋 A little about me
Hi, I’m Charndra, an Inclusive Social Artist and creative facilitator based in South Australia.
I’ve spent years helping people of all ages and abilities make art together, and I’ve developed Pattern Play Collaborative Art along the way.
Pattern Play is an Australian-developed approach to collaborative art, created from my own experience working with schools, community groups, families and people with disabilities. It’s something I’ve developed, tested and refined through more than 60 projects here in South Australia.
And it’s mine.
I’ve built Painting Around Is Fun to share what I’ve learned and make collaborative art easier for other people to run. If you’ve read this far, I hope you’re tempted to give it a go yourself. You really don’t need to be an art expert. You just need a group of people, something to paint on and a willingness to have a play.
Happy Painting,
Charndra
Specialist in Inclusive Social Art Projects
P.S. Listen to Easy Collaborative Art on your podcast player.