Wassily Kadinsky with 2nd Grade: Movement and Music in Art

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter who is known for his abstract paintings with shapes and lines.  Kadinsky said that "Music is the ultimate teacher," and created a series of composition pairings in the 1930s.  In his early years, he stated, "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul (Kandinsky, Wassily (1911). Concerning the Spiritual in Art. translated by Michael T. H. Sadler (2004)."

One of my favorite projects with my 2nd graders is my Kadinsky-inspired line and shape paintings.  The students love how music can help inspire any artwork, especially with abstract designs.  Prepare your Pandora account with some early Jazz tunes and start getting your materials together!

Materials
-10.5" x 16" white paper (60 lb. or heavier)
-12" x 18" colored paper (for frame)
-pencils
-black and colored markers
-tempura cake paints
-paintbrushes
-newspaper

Objectives
Since students have prior knowledge in identifying different shapes and lines in art, I ask the students to create an abstract painting using the shapes and lines they know.  As inspiration in creating their pictures, I play music in the background to encourage their creative thinking.  Students must fill their paper with the shapes and lines, leaving little negative space.

On day 1 (40 minute class), I introduce the artist with a Powerpoint showing his artworks.  I also show a few composition paintings to show the difference in painting styles with fast and slow music.

For example...

This painting demonstrates crisp lines, filled in shapes, and and precision.  This painting appears to have been made while someone was listening to music with a slower beat.

This painting is more chaotic, dramatic, and quick.  This painting appears to have been made while the artist was listening to music with a faster beat.

For the rest of class, the students use a pencil to draw in their abstract picture while listening to Early Jazz music in the background.  In the early 20s-30s, Jazz and Ragtime was the popular music at that time, so I encourage students to try and create to the same type of music Wassily would have listened to.  If students finish their drawings early, I can easily put out the tempura cake trays for beginning painting.

Day 2 is mainly for painting.  I encourage students to fill in their spaces with different colors and to complete the background (negative space) with colors as well.

Day 3 is for refinement and framing.  Since you can't use a marker on wet paint, all students should be at the same step in the lesson on this day.  Students can use black or colored markers to trace their shapes and lines, which helps enhance the painting.  To finish, students glue a colored paper to the back of the painting for a frame.

                   Here's a video I like to show students before starting the project!

Little Screamers in 1st Grade

At the end of the 11-12 school year, I found this project and used it as the last art project of the year with the 1st graders.  This coming school year, I want to use is at the first project of the year since they can be hung up during open house!

This project is also inspired by the painting The Scream by Edward Munch.

The project is very fun, but you will need extra time for prepping.  The materials you need are:

-Digital Camera (photographing students posing for the scream face)
-Printer (make sure your colored ink is full!)
-Printer paper (size your printed pictures as 5" x 7")
-White Paper (cut to 5" x 7")
-Black Markers
-Crayons
-Glue

The week before you do the project, take pictures of your students posing like this:

(I would show you the actual photograph, but the originals are stuck in my computer at work, and I'm at home for summer!)

Prepping for the Lesson: Take the entire class's picture while they are finishing their previous project.  Do this for every 1st grade class you have during the week.

Also, during the week, print out a class at a time (and store the photos in a large envelope!).  When you have a 6th grade class, you can ask them to trim the 1st graders out of the pictures, or if you're sitting in a meeting, trim the kids out while you're paying attention to the notes (I'm a multi-tasker...I can't help it).

The Lesson:  Ready with their pre-cut photos, you can introduce the project!  I start by showing the students the photo of The Scream by Edward Munch.  We have fun posing like the screamer, and asking why we think the man in the picture is screaming.  We also look at the lines in the background and discuss the movement in the picture.

When we're done with the discussion, I show the students how to create a background with lines that show movement.  Since we're limited to 40 minutes of time, I tell the students to just use black markers to draw their lines.

1. Start with the diagonal lines that show the path and the rails of the fence:

2. Add the vertical lines for the posts of the fence (I tell the students to use rectangles):

3. Next, add the horizontal line (I call it the ground line)

4. Lastly, add wavy lines that show motion.  Describe how the lines show cloudy skies or a pond if you'd like!

Once the students are done coloring the entire picture, have them glue their pictures onto their background like this:

I giggled at every picture that finished!  I can't wait to see what this year's pictures will look like!