Painting to Music

Of course painting to music starts with a lesson on Kandinsky.  I tell my students how Kandinsky liked to paint to music.  He said when he saw a painting he could hear music in it.  I played various types of music and students made one painting per song.  I encouraged them to stop and listen for inspiration, or to let the music move their paintbrush hand.  Can you hear colors too? 

 

 

 

 

Q-tip Winter Tree

Kindergartners LOVE to paint.  I like to keep it simple so clean up is not overwhelming.  So I often use a Q-tip for the paint instead of a brush.  This project reviews rectangle and triangle.  I tell my students that the person who looks at their picture should see snow, but the artist who paints it is CREATING LINES.  According to basic geometry, a line starts with a dot that moves.  And q-tips  make perfect little dots.  Now move the q-tip and create a line!

Paul Klee Hearts

 

After my fourth grade students look at Paul Klee's colorful abstract art work, I show them how to use primary tempera paints (magenta, yellow and turquoise) plus white to get any complicated colors.  I find if I don't give them white the colors get very deep and dark. 

While they already know red and yellow make orange, a little more red makes yellow-orange.  We use egg cartons to mix the colors in.  So one egg cup ean mix three or more colors.  The more colors they make in each cup the more complicated the colors get.  Sharing colors is a great time saver.  It is soon obvious to everyone that analagous colors create brights, while opposites create neutrals.  I wish I had learned this in elementary school instead of college.  Painting 101 would have been much easier.