3rd Grade Project: Wassily Kandinsky - Kandinsky's Concentric Circles

The color studies of Wassily Kandinsky remained our inspiration for this project.  We attempted the very same color study that Kandinsky himself did in his 1913 "Concentric Circles" as seen below.
 

Kandinsky - Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles - 1913

Using watercolors the students explored the different color combinations while trying to control the paint as they created larger and larger circles.  Once their circle reached the edge of the box, they then would paint in the background to complete that section.  Their compositions consisted of four of these circles.

3rd Grade Project: Wassily Kandinsky - Wassily's Silly Trees

As the 3rd grade continued their studies of Wassily Kandinsky, we moved into a cut paper project using Kandinsky's color studies as our inspiration.  These cut paper studies took the form of trees.  Students would begin by drawing a tree.  Once the tree was drawn and outlined, student would cut the trees out.

We then used the basic shapes: circles, squares, and triangles to complete the colorful foliage of our trees.  The students were encouraged to use a wide variety of colors in their compositions just like Kandinsky did as he worked on his color studies.

2nd Grade Project: Piet Mondrian - Cut Paper Compositions

Students again were focused on the work of Piet Mondrian.  In this project we approached his Neoplasticism in a different way: cut paper.  The 2nd graders used pre-cut black strips as well as primary color squares and rectangles of various sizes to create their Mondrian inspired compositions.

Students were given the freedom to choose how and where to place their lines and colors.  These choices resulted in a widely varied and extremely colorful collection of work.

See our first exploration of Mondrian in Colored Pencil.