Abstract Painting and Collage

​I have been working at a gallery that has a large permanent collection of abstract art pieces which we often use when teaching classes.  I thought I would look into different abstract art techniques to test out different methods for teaching  abstract art to kids.

I found this method on another art blog and gave it a try.  It was wonderfully fun and  exploratory and it generated some interesting pieces.

Each step is listed below.  I didn't do a lot of thinking and just tried to have fun and go with my feelings.  Whenever I didn't like the way something was looking I just added to the painting.

Step 1 : Painting shapes and colours completely filling the paper

Step 2 : Cutting up the first painting and gluing some pieces of it down into a new composition.

Step 3 : The final piece after adding more acrylic paint, glaze and smaller line work with paint and gel pens.

I used the left over pieces of the first painting in Step 1 to make a second piece of art.  It turned out quite different despite being made from the same original painting.

I used a few different tools when making the pieces including a gift card for dragging paint and a sponge.  I tried water and gel medium to make some paint more translucent showing the colours and shapes underneath.  

Overall it was quite a fun project and process and I think the kids may enjoy the freedom of playing with paint mixing and mark making.