Abstract Lines & That Artist With The Silly Name...

Devon Inglee
Sep 9, 2015
2 min read

The first project that we tackled in kinder involved a little bit of art history, lots of fun movement and drawing lines using our bodies, and best of all... Paint!

We began by looking at the artwork of one of my favorite abstract artists with the silly name: Wassilly Kandinsky. Wassilly is a great artist to introduce young artists to because of his fun use of the foundations of design: line and shape.

After we talked about the lines that we saw in his work, we began listing all of the lines we could think of and see around us. Then we practiced first drawing them with our hands, and finally with our bodies (vertical lines reach waaaaaaay up to the sky... zig zags go up and then down and then up and then down, etc... ) The kiddos LOVED this part! :)

After exploring lines we talked about how to best use a paint brush to create lines. I told them about the my preference for kitty cat tails instead of squashed spiders (using the tip of the brush vs smashing the whole brush into the paper.) Then they set off painting all of the lines that we talked about. When they finished, they began to practice their scissor skills by cutting along a print out of lines and glueing them onto another paper (hello fine motor skills! :)

On the second day, we reviewed how to best use a paint brush and began to add color with tempera cake paint to all of the negative space around our lines. I love this activity- and so do the kiddos.... It is so fun to hear the excitement as they begin to mix and create new colors... Except for brown. At least one student discovers that if you mix ALL of the colors together you get this yucky brown color... their excitement at this discovery is great... but I still am not a fan of that shade of brown ;)