Classroom Activity

Art Starters: Wassily Kandinsky

Part of Art Tales for Pre-K

Wassily Kandinsky was a musician as well as a painter—sometimes both at the same time! Kandinsky believed that paintings, like music, could express and inspire feelings in everyone. Many of his paintings have bright and bold colors that he thought connected to specific sounds and music.

Black lines and one small, black triangular shape stand out against patches of color, in indigo and sky blue, pumpkin orange, butter yellow, emerald green, and ruby red, against a white background in this vertical, abstract painting. The paint seems thinly applied, resembling watercolor. Near the lower right corner, the black shape is roughly triangular and has five curving, parallel lines emanating from the bottom. Given the title of this painting, Improvisation 31, Sea Battle, the black lines could represent tall masts and outlines of sails amid areas of vibrant color that make up a boat and water around it.
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle), 1913, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.48.1

Grade Level

Subject

Language

Look

How many different colors can you find? Name them.

What kinds of lines do you see? Choose a line and use your finger like a paintbrush to trace it in the air.

Can you find two boats in this painting? Can you find a city? Or do you see something else?

What color would you use to express different feelings—Happiness? Sadness? Excitement? Anger?

If this painting were a piece of music, what might it sound like to you?

Read

The Color Monster (Spanish language version: El monstruo de colores)
By Anna Llenas

Color monster has lots of feelings - and a little girl helps him figure out what his feelings are through color.

The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art
by Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré

Young Kandinsky - "Vasya" - wants to paint to make music. This book tells the story of his life and how his synesthesia allowed him to explore the different possibilities of art.

Make: Paint to music

You Will Need

  • Paper
  • Paints
  • Paintbrushes
  • Music to listen to

First, choose a special song or piece of music. Close your eyes and listen to the music. How does it make you feel? What kinds of lines, colors, and shapes do you think of as you listen to the music?

Next, listen to the music again—this time, while painting. Start with a background color (or use colored paper) to show the overall mood of the piece. Then, as you listen, paint a line that follows the melody. Pick a shape, such as a circle or square, and paint it every time you hear a part of the song that repeats. Finally, add colors inside and around the shapes that match the different feelings the music inspires in you.

Vocab Bank

  • abstract
  • battle
  • inspire
  • melody

Download

Art Tales: Coloring and Cut-Outs booklet (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Art Tales for Pre-K (PDF, 7.2 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte (PDF, 7.5 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte: Colorear y Recortes (PDF, 3.7 MB)

Visit

Register for the Art Tales pre-K school tour

Submit Student Work

Send images of your students' projects that follow these activities - email [email protected]

You may also like

This nearly square, abstract painting is filled with circles within circles, like nested rings, each of a single bright color against the ivory white of the canvas. Each ring is made up of a series of short, rectangular dashes, and some bands are narrower while others are a bit wider. The majority of the rings are crimson and brick red, and they are interspersed with bands of lapis blue, army green, and pale pink. One of two pumpkin-orange bands is the smallest, innermost ring at the center. There is one aqua-blue colored ring just inside a pale, shell-white ring, which is the first to get cropped by the edges of the canvas. A few red, green, and blue rings beyond the white band are only seen at the corners of the canvas.

Educational Resource:  Art Tales: Alma Thomas

A lesson for preschool to kindergarten students about artist Alma Thomas’ painting Pansies in Washington. Students learn how to look at this painting, what you can read to learn more, how to create a color square, and a list of vocabulary terms related to this activity.

The curling, flaring petal of a jack-in-the-pulpit blossom wrapping around a vertical, elongated core nearly fills this vertical painting. The flower rises from a narrow base and is veined with white against dark, maroon red. It unfurls to reveal the deep maroon stamen within. Spring-green leaves span the lower edge of the composition, beneath the flower, and billow around the blossom, across the top of the painting. A soft blue and white background recalls clouds in a bright sky.

Educational Resource:  Art Starters: Georgia O'Keeffe

A lesson for preschool to kindergarten students about artist Georgia O'Keeffe’s painting Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. 3. Students learn how to look at this painting, what you can read to learn more, how to draw a flower close up, and a list of vocabulary terms related to this activity.

An abstracted jug, bottles, shapes reminiscent of balled up paper or fabric, and a needle-like letter opener are gathered on a wood square in this horizontal still life painting. Rectangles in shades of corn yellow, violet purple, burgundy red-and-black checks, white, black, and spruce green splay out behind the objects like untidily stacked placemats. The brown jug is at the center, and an echo of its form in teal blue presumably represents a shadow. Portions of the jug, wooden board, and crumpled material shift color and pattern as they intersect or overlap with other areas. The artist’s initials, “DMR,” are stenciled in yellow in the lower left corner.

Educational Resource:  Art Starters: Diego Rivera

A lesson for preschool to kindergarten students about artist Diego Rivera’s painting No. 9, Nature Morte Espagnole. Students learn how to look at this painting, what you can read to learn more, how to make a still life collage, and a list of vocabulary terms related to this activity.