Rainbow Kandinsky Circles

The painting above is one of Wassily Kandinsky's most recognized pieces of artwork. He was an expressionist painter which means he tried to show how he felt through his artwork. Sometimes this is done by the colors the artist chooses to use. Think about color for a minute. How do you feel when you think about blue? Maybe you think of blue as sad or being lonely. How do you feel when you think about red? Maybe you think of red as angry. How do you feel when you think about yellow? Maybe you feel happy or warm. As you can see, different colors can make us feel different ways. Please watch this video of Dr. Seuss' book:

This week we will make our own versions of "Squares with Concentric Circles." However, we will use the rainbow colors that we learned about in class. Let's review the order of the rainbow. Please watch this video:

To begin, fold a white piece of paper into 6 boxes. To do this, fold the paper down the long way. Then unfold the paper and fold it into 3rds. Please ask an adult to help you fold your paper. See below:

Now let's take another look at Kandinsky's "Squares with Concentric Circles":

Notice each set of circles is stays within the box it was painted in. You should try to keep your circles in each box as well. Now that you are ready to begin painting (or coloring if you don't have paints), paint the middle of each box with a different colored circle. After painting your 6 circles you can focus on one box at a time. You should paint circles around your first circle in the order of the rainbow. For this project we will use the order Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. Indigo is not always given with your paint colors so it is okay to skip that color. If you start with yellow for example, you would then paint with green, then blue, then purple, then red and then orange. Another example would be if you start with blue. Your next circles in this order should be purple, red, orange, yellow and then green.

Make sure you check out the section "Fun Activities for Everyone"

for extra art activities