Forget about accurate, observational drawing and use art to express your feelings. Be inspired by beautiful music, blustery weather, and the range of your own emotions. Create swirling, gestural artworks that use different colours to reflect your moods.

ACTIVITY: EXPRESSIVE MARK-MAKING

Find a piece of instrumental music (lyrics will be distracting), either online or on a CD. There are some suggestions to help you below. Make sure everyone has a large piece of paper and a good selection of colours in front of them - ideally ready to use paints, pastels, or oil pastels. Charcoal is good too, though will make your hands messy! Now listen to the music, immersing yourselves in it - it helps if you close your eyes at the beginning. Start painting as a response to the music, letting the rhythms influence the marks you make. Let your lines move in time with the music and use your hands too if you like. Use different colours to reflect how the music makes you feel. When everyone has finished, compare your paintings and discuss your individual responses to the music. Try the activity again with different styles of music.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition IX, 1936

MATERIALS

• Paper in small and large sheets
• Ready-mixed paint
• Coloured pastels or oil pastels
• Charcoal

TYPES OF MUSIC FOR YOU TO PAINT TO

• Relaxing and romantic piano music, e.g. Piano concerto in G (Adagio Assai) by Ravel
• Rhythmic jazz music, e.g. Take the A Train by Duke Ellington
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya Soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi
• Expressive orchestral music, e.g. 5^th Symphony in C Minor, Beethoven

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923

TIPS

Use a long roll of decorator’s lining paper or the back of a roll of smooth wallpaper if you are all going to work on one large artwork together.

Artist Inspiration: André Masson, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Expressionism

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