This beautiful piece of collaborative art is inspired by the works of Kandinsky. I am a big fan of creating artwork with kids and this Kandinsky for kids art is perfect for a large group of children or for screen free family time.
I love Wassily Kandinsky’s artwork. So much so we have a very large print of his concentric circles in squares in our dining room. It was purchased about 20 years ago and has followed us from home to home. Both of the boys have been attracted to the print too and they love it too. I hope that in the years to come my boys remember the beautiful artwork we had around our home and also that they remember making art and me displaying it at home too.
Kandinsky had a neurological condition called “synesthesia” whereby colors evoked sounds and sounds evoked colors. Perhaps because of this condition, music played an important role in his life and greatly influenced his works. In order to help us understand this concept, we played music while worked on our artwork.
a collaborative art piece based on concentric circles in squares
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Materials
- Watercolour paper pad (UK Link/US Link)
- Watercolour paint (UK Link/US Link)
- Scissors
- Paintbrushes (UK Link/US Link)
- A large piece of cardboard
- Spray glue – 3M craft mount (UK Link/US Link)
Kandinsky for kids – concentric circles in squares
Cut your paper into squares (We did 4inch squares). Our finished artwork is 5 squares across by 4 squares down. which means the finished piece will be 20 inches by 16 inches and that is what size our cardboard needs to be.
As this was a collaborative piece we all grabbed a paintbrush and used our watercolour palette that splits into colours.
For younger children then you can mark out circles with different size cups or glasses using a pencil, so that they have a line to follow, but to be honest , this looks great no matter what you do.
Beginning with the center circle start painting your circles with the paint, ending with the outside square.
The paintings will look great when the edges are slightly blurred.
Once all your individual paintings are completed and dry, then comes the time to assemble your picture. Maxi worked out how large out piece of cardboard needed to be before we marked it out and cut it.
Then we placed it onto a large piece of scrap paper before covering it in spray adhesive before placing our squares on to it.
The boys loved planning what went where.
And we are delighted with the finished result and the kids keep pointing out which pieces they painted.
I could see a massive one of these on a classroom wall. How amazing would that look?
For more activities inspired by famous artists check out the rest of the activities in Messy Little Monsters“Exploring Famous Artists” series.
I love that this was a project that all the family could get involved in. Make sure you take a look at our Kadinsy Tree made with Felt.
Have you started exploring different artists with your kids?
Oh Jen, this looks fab! It makes such a lovely piece of art for the wall!
I like the idea of collaborative art – so you can make something together that is unique for your family.
This is great Jen. I think Emmy would enjoy having a go at this
This looks fantastic!!! Such a fun idea for a collaborative art project!
So effective and I love how you have built it up out of squares of individual circles, it was an education for me reading this never mind the kids. Now off to read more about Kandinsky
This looks really effective! It sounds like great fun too xx
Boo did this at school a couple of years ago, it looked totally awesome x
That looks interesting. They look really effective
That looks cool – and lots of fun to make too x
What a beautifully constructed painting. It’s lovely and I love the fact that’s it’s got everyone’s efforts in it.
Ooh this is a lovely idea Jen, it’s the kind of thing POD would love to do outdoors. She painted a giant cardboard aeroplane outside at the weekend, made such a mess! I don’t mind her doing it inside though as it’s all washable. Those paints you have look fab 🙂