creating abstract art: sonia delaunay & wassily kandinsky

Artworks inspired byWassily Kandinsky and Sonia Delaunay

We looked at the artwork called ‘Farbstudie Quadrate,’ by Wassily Kandinsky.

The children were asked:

•What shapes can you see?

•How does this artwork make you feel?

•What colours have been used?

Our task was to create a class artwork inspired by Wassily Kandinsky...

• Children sketched their designs on paper squares about 14 cm x 14 cm.

• Water colour pencils were grouped into colours.

• Children explored colour combinations and used the colour wheel for ideas.

• The children drew their final design onto canvas pressed paper.

• They sketched their designs using a light water coloured pencil, like yellow.

Draft design on the left... Finished design...

• Fine paint brushes were used so children could create crisp lines between colours.

• I purchased a sheet of MDF and cut this to fit all the finished individual artworks.

I used PVA glue to stick each artwork to the MDF. Any air bubbles were pushed out with a plastic card. Heavy objects were used to weigh down each square, so the corners didn’t stick out.

The finished artwork...

Creating artworks inspired by Sonia Delaunay...

The children were asked:

• How does this artwork make you feel?

• What materials do you think the artist used to create this artwork?

• What colours have been used?

• Why do you think the artist used these colours?

• The children were shown an artwork by Sonia Delaunay called ‘Rythme.’

Looking at the artworks by Sonia Delaunay...

The first task...

The children had to google ‘Sonia Delaunay’ and sketched two of her artworks.

The second task...

Then they created four sketches inspired by Delauna’s artworks. They had to think of what colours they were going to use.

Since this artwork involved circles we also looked at the diameter and radius of circles. Children used a compass to draw circles with different diameters.

To make things easier children created different sized circles on cardboard. These were used as stencils. They also used objects around the classroom.

Around the outside of the table are thecardboard circles.

Making the circles...

• Once each child had selected their chosen composition, from their sketches, it was time to create their final artworks.

• They traced around the cardboard stencils or objects with a light watercolour pencil.

Creating their compositions...

An artwork ready to be brushed with water.