I spent the first half of my life struggling to appreciate most art masterpieces. Then in my sophomore year of high school, I traveled to Paris and saw many of those masterpieces in person. I fell instantly smitten. Hoping to help my three year old appreciate art much earlier than I did, I enjoy having him create his own versions of the real thing. This piece is inspired by Kandinsky's famous circle paintings. I like the original but I love my son's take on it even more. (Yes, I'm totally biased.)
How we did it:
- colored paper
- construction paper
- glue stick
Before inviting my son to join me, I cut out small, medium and large circles from different colors of paper. For older kids, this would be a great opportunity for them to practice tracing circles and cutting them out. The tops of soup cans, cups and round storage containers easily turn into helpful circle templates.
I called my son over and showed him several pictures of Kandinsky's famous circle paintings on the computer. We talked about what shapes and colors he noticed. Then I explained that he was going to create his own circle painting - just like Kadinsky. I rubbed the glue stick over the surface of the blank piece of paper to make it sticky and asked my son to lay the big circles down on top of it. He took the job VERY seriously - "This one goes here. The green one goes there. No not there! There..."
Then he rubbed the glue stick on top of each large circle and chose a medium sized circle to stick to it. This step was a little trickier to master because Kandinsky layered circles with contrasting colors. That's a pretty tough concept for a three year old but, with some help, my son managed to do it.
And finally, he glued the smallest circles on top. With a little prep from me and playful creating from my son, this homemade art project changed an ordinary piece of paper into a full-fledged masterpiece.