Kandinsky Inspired Abstract Painting

First grade artists were introduced to the artist Wassily Kandinsky. I shared the book, "The Noisy Paintbox" written by Barb Rosenstock.
I appreciate the rich language and artwork in this book, though some of the vocabulary is beyond the 1st grade lexicon, it can be adapted for the younger set. For example, when the word cobalt is used, I say, "Cobalt Blue". Just so my kids, have some bearing on what is being communicated.

We discussed the lines, shapes and colors of his paintings and how they were named using musical words.

Students offered their interpretations of his paintings and then set to work creating paintings using red, yellow, and turquoise crayola tempera paint. I encouraged them to work with yellow first, then red, then turquoise, mixing colors directly on their paper. They rediscovered/remembered that these colors create orange, purple, and green...the secondary colors. Last,  they used black to create final details. I did give some guidance in asking them to paint 2 shapes with yellow paint, 2 lines with red, and 2 more shapes with blue. They could make any shapes or lines they wished.

 

Of course, I made sure to play some Tchaikovsky while they painted! 

The goal was to review primary and secondary color mixing and use lines, shapes and colors to create an abstract painting inspired by Wassily Kandinksy. Here are their results!

What I discovered is my students began to mix complementary colors to create neutral tones and were saying, "I made brown! I made a golden color!" They were so excited about the range of hues they were able to make by just mixing the primary colors. Each painting was unique. 

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Djembe Drum paintings by 1st Grade

I LOVE this one...those colors!

My 1st grade artists have been focusing on musical instruments for their painting unit lessons. We had just made beautiful Mexican style guitars so I decided we would make some West African drums next. This lesson incorporated guided drawing, painting, sgrafitto, and printing processes.

I began by introducing the artists to a short drumming lesson shown in this video.

This video taught some Djembe drum history, how the drum is made, and how it is played...super fun! I had the kids practice the drumming techniques on their tables...it was loud...but they loved it!

We did a little guided drawing and they had to choose a primary and secondary color to paint their drum head and body.  After that, they could draw into the paint with the other end of their brush to create the rope part. They could add patterns to their drums as well with the sgraffito technique.

To finalize our painting process, I asked the kids to paint their hand...yep...you read that right. They could paint their hand any color/s they wanted to print onto their drum heads. If they wanted to add more than one print, they could make that artistic choice.

 

Needless to say, this was a HUGE hit. The happy sounds of giggles in my room were infectious. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

One the 2nd day, I gave the drums back so they could add more details with oil pastels and fill in their backgrounds. We shared our final works with one another and celebrated a job well done.

 

I loved this lesson and their work turned out beautifully. I mean look at that color! 

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Mexican style guitars by 1st Grade

 

 These fun and colorful painted artworks began on Cinco de Mayo and was inspired by Laura Lohmann's lesson over at The Painted Paper. I began by sharing some examples of Mexican guitars as a reference for colors and patterns.

I gave my first grade artists guitar stencils to trace since the learning objective isn't necessarily drawing but paint mixing. I demonstrated a variety of color mixing techniques and my artists made choices in how they wanted to paint their guitar shapes.  The following class we added more paint, oil pastel, and collage elements for details.

My first graders really liked this sgraffito technique of flipping your brush over to draw into the wet paint.

I have a TON of images from their work. Here are some of the results.

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"The Great Wave" by 2nd Grade inspired by Hokusai

These artworks were developed from a simple painting exercise and color theory review. I had wanted to review proper painting technique, paint blending, and the color order of the rainbow spectrum, so my students all painted a piece of paper to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.  After that...well...I wasn't too sure where to go next with their work.

As I stared at their painted papers I turned one vertical and thought that the warm colors could be a sunset and the cool colors, the ocean. "A-HA!" I thought! We will cut these up into layers and create a landscape inspired by Hokusai's "The Great Wave of Kanagawa".

By Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) - Restored version of File:Great Wave off Kanagawa.jpg (rotated and cropped, dirt, stains, and smudges removed. Creases corrected. Histogram adjusted and color balanced.), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5576388

The art history geek squealed with glee! I love sharing important works of art with my students and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Even though the original work is a print without all the colors of the rainbow evident, but hey...we can make imaginative interpretations.

After I passed back their rainbow painted papers, I shared the original work of art with a presentation as well as this fun video to help motivate my artists.

I then demonstrated how we were going to cut and layer our painted paper to create our own versions of Hokusai's famous print. I also gave them brown painted paper to use for their boats.

They were then encouraged to add their own details with paint. Some students got really creative with their landscapes.
Here are some of the results!

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