Let’s make a colorful fall tree painting using pine needles as our painting tool! This colorful fall tree art is made by dipping pine needles into acrylic paint and then onto paper. Kids are going to love getting messy with this fun art project at home or in the classroom!

A colorful fall tree painted using pine needles and acrylic paint. — Make our colorful fall tree art using pine needles as a paintbrush.

Tree Painting for Kids

This fall tree art project is fun for kids of all ages. They will love dipping pine needles into paint, blending colors, and then dabbing the paint-covered pine needles onto paper. We love this craft because it’s inexpensive, fun, and no tree will look the same.

Alternatively, pour your paint colors onto separate plates and paint a variety of trees in different colors instead of using every color on just one tree. Show the kids pictures of trees with fall leaves on them so they can see all of the beautiful colors there are.

I did this art project with preschool kids as part of our tree study unit. We looked at pictures of pine trees, and they touched pinecones and pine needles too.

Related: More pine needle art

How to make a fall tree painting using pine needles

Gather sprigs of pine needles along with acrylic paint in fall colors. Kids will dip the pine needles into the paint and then onto paper. Let them mix the paint colors together and stamp or sweep the pine needles across the paper. Don’t forget to wear art smocks because this art project can get a little messy.

Supplies needed to make pine needle art

Supplies Needed to make tree painting - Father acrylic paint in assorted colors, pine needles, and paper to make a pine needle painting with kids. — You will need acrylic paint, pine needles, and paper to make our pine needle fall tree painting.

Pine needles
Construction paper
Acrylic paint – in assorted fall colors
Paintbrush
Paper plate

Instructions for painting a fall tree using pine needles

Step 1

Put small amounts (at a time) of acrylic paint onto the paper plate. We used the fall colors green, orange, yellow, red, and purple for our art project.

Dip the pine needles into the paint, and then onto the paper. Continue this process over and over again. The colors will blend together a little on both the plate and the paper, but that is okay. Try to have the kids just paint the top half of the paper. If necessary, you can fold the piece of paper in half so they only paint one section.

Painting tip: Make sure to protect your painting surface and wear an art smock. This can be a very messy project because the paint will splatter a little.

Step 2

Using your paintbrush and brown acrylic paint, add a tree trunk and branches to your tree.

We added more paint splatters using the pine needles over the top of our tree branches so it looked like leaves were over them too.

Our finished fall tree pine needle ART

A tree painted with pine needles and acrylic paint on construction paper. — This fall pine needle tree project is going to be so much messy fun for kids.

Yield: 1

Fall tree pine needle art

Make our fall tree using pine needle painting.

Materials

Pine needles
Construction paper
Acrylic paint - in assorted fall colors

Tools

Paintbrush
Paper plate

Instructions

Pour small amounts of paint (green, yellow, orange, red, and purple) onto a paper plate.
Dip the pine needles into the paint and then onto the paper. Try to have the kids paint just the top half of the paper. Repeat the dipping and painting as often as they like until they are happy with their painting.
Using the brown acrylic paint and a paintbrush add a trunk and branches to your tree.