Halloween is around the corner and today I’ll show you how to create an art history inspired paper pumpkin patch! This fall inspired paper art project is easy for children of all ages. Wassily Kandinsky’s, Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles, is the perfect artwork to use as our inspiration piece for this art project with its simple geometric composition and abstract subject matter. Using construction paper and glue, this craft inspired by Kandinsky is easily affordable for a whole group of students or just one child.
Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles, Wassily Kandinsky.
Abstract art is an ideal art movement to introduce to young children. With no specific subject matter, abstract art allows children to freely express their personal choice in arranging shapes and choosing colors.
In this art project, the arrangement of the concentric circles allows children to practice arranging relative sizes in order from large to small to create their “pumpkins” for their pumpkin patch.
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. As a child, he learned to play the piano and cello and also learned to draw. He did not become a serious student of art until he was 30 years old because he followed his family’s wishes to go into law.
-------------------- Advertisement --------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
In 1896, two significant events brought about an abrupt career change. One event was seeing an exhibition of French Impressionists and the other was hearing Wagner’s music at the Bolshoi Theatre. Kandinsky abandoned his law career and devoted himself full-time to the study of art.
Kandinsky felt an intense relationship between color and music. In many of his paintings color is used independent of form and each color is given equal attention.
In this art project, we’re using fall inspired colors, various shades of green for our background and shades of orange/brown for our concentric circles (pumpkins 😉 ).
Supplies needed for this craft inspired by Kandinsky are:
- Various colors of green construction paper or cardstock
- Various colors of orange/brown/yellow (pumpkin inspired colors) construction paper or cardstock
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Colored pencils
The first step is to prepare the background for our pumpkins!
First, fold one piece of paper into thirds and then in half horizontally.
This will create your guide for how large each background rectangle should be. Cut rectangles from a few different shades of green to assemble the background.
Attach green rectangles to one unfolded piece of paper with the glue stick to arrange a background varied green rectangles.
-------------------- Advertisement --------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
Next, we’re going to make our paper pumpkins!
To prepare to make the paper pumpkins, cut 5 different sizes of circular shapes (they do not have to be perfect circles – it’s better if they’re a bit more organic in shape). The largest shape should fit nicely inside the edges of the background rectangle.
Assemble each paper pumpkin by arranging 5 shapes with the largest one on the bottom. Once you’re happy with your shapes, glue them down starting with the largest one first.
Now it’s time to add some details!
Using green paper cut small shapes that can be used as pumpkin stems and leaves and glue them wherever you would like. You can tuck the stems in between the edges of the circle shapes in the different places.
Use colored pencils to add a few details and your pumpkin faces, or use our pumpkin face stencils for inspiration!. You can also leave some pumpkins blank.
This project is a great way to introduce young children to a little art history as well as the following art concepts:
- Abstract art
- Analogous colors (colors that are closely related in hue)
- Arranging shapes in relative sizes.
Our final paper pumpkin patch!
