Art with Kids

Child's Tree

Kandinsky Tree

I always loved the subject of Art History. I hope to help the kids I care for to develop a love of Art History as well. So, I decided to start introducing my three-year-old charge to abstract art by showing her Kandinsky Trees. Wassily Kandisnsky was a famous Russian artist who had a gift called synaesthesia cognate which gives him the ability to hear colors and see sounds. Using his unusual gift of sense he used color to express emotion rather than reflect nature. He is recognized as the pioneer of abstract art. I loved using Kandinsky Trees because it is easy to do.

Kandinsky Tree

You Will Need:

Colorful Construction Paper
Safety Scissors
Paste or Glue
Round Objects to Trace (optional)

What to Do:

1. Click here or show the kids the Kandinsky Tree to the right to allow the kids to identify the colors and shapes used in a Kandinsky Tree. Explain to them they will be making a Kandinsky Tree of their very own.

2. I cut a tree trunk from brown construction paper for the three-year-old I care for, but older kids can certainly draw and cut out their tree trunks without your help. For older kids tell them to create the trunk by considering the shape of a long hand with five outstretched fingers as the branches.

3. Allow the kids to paste the brown tree trunk to yellow construction paper.

4. Allow the kids to trace various sized circles on various colored construction paper. Allow them to cut out the circles that don't have to be perfect by any means. If you look at Kandinsky Trees you will see he did not use perfectly formed circles at all.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky