The Big Picture

It sounds like an oxymoron, but call it finger painting with a purpose.

Some 3,000 children and their carers hit Northern Ireland's Belfast Zoo Thursday morning to get themselves awfully messy en route to a world record. Their mission: To create the world’s largest finger painting.

The kids painted on their own small canvases, which were then sewn together to create a 2,090 square meter (22,496 square feet) ooey gooey masterpiece that was spread out in the zoo's parking lot. The previous record, set in Austria in 2007, was for 2,000 square meters.

The Northern Ireland Child Minding Association organized the event as part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, so the paintings were sewn together in the shape of a house — a nod to the home-based care the kids receive.

"We wanted to do something a bit different to celebrate our anniversary," NICMA's Director, Bridget Nodder, told the BBC.

Before Thursday’s push to the finish line, the NICMA already had a huge head start. According to the BBC, more than 4,000 children had already palm printed and swirled before the big event, covering 3,500 meters of canvas by using 1,000 liters of paint.

That's one serious smear campaign.

Photo courtesy of bfick, via Creative Commons and Flickr