Kandinsky Inspired Circle Paintings + Floating Frame

These Kandinsky inspired circle paintings are one of my favorite art prompts. Their beauty lies in letting the colors bleed into each other. I can’t get enough of them!

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Supplies needed for circle paintings:

~ Watercolor paper

~ Liquid watercolor

~ Brushes

Setting up the circle painting prompt:

1. Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter most famous for his Concentric Circles paintings. Recognize them? They are bright and simple and a perfect first artist study. To start this art lesson, we talked a little bit about abstract art and practiced drawing circles on the paper with just a dry brush.

2. Next, I set out some large format watercolor paper (15 x 22) that had a very light grid that I made with pencil, just to create some square boxes. This guide is necessary for the kids to keep their circles about the same size.

3. I gave them each an egg carton with the liquid watercolors. They had the choice of using all of the colors, or just a few. I also gave them a glass of water and a damp sponge for rinsing and drying.

4. Lastly, I encouraged them to go heavy with the paint and work on the quicker side so that the paints stayed wet and blended.

A few days later, my tween girls tried this art prompt with smaller paper, and then I made a floating frame because I thought it would be cool. I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest.

Supplies needed to make a floating frame:

~ Frame (bigger than your art by about 1 inch all around)

~ Wire (I used 18 gauge craft wire)

~ Scissors

~ Eye screws (12mm)

~ Mini clothespins

How to make a floating frame:

1. Take the glass and backing out of the frame. Turn it over to expose the back and lay it flat on the table. Center the painting inside the frame, eyeballing it (or you could use a ruler if you don’t trust your eyes). Draw a pencil mark 1cm below the top of the painting and 1cm above the bottom of the painting, (you want the wire to be just below the top and just above the bottom of the painting).

2. Screw in the screws to the side of the frame (the thickest part of the wood). Just push them and turn and they will start to screw into the wood and become secure.

3. Cut your wire about 2″ longer than the finished length. Thread the ends through the eye screws then twist it around and point the ends back towards the inside of the frame (so it doesn’t poke out the front where you could see it).

Voilà…you are done! I painted my clothespins, but you can leave them plain or buy them colored.

This post first appeared on the blog Small for Big. Click over if you want to see a few more photos from this project, and to see all the other projects I did for Mari and her playful blog.

Happy Monday!!

xo, Bar

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Did you like this post? Here are some more artist studies with kids: