Kids will create their own colorful paintings and learn about artist Sonia Delaunay, with her strong colors and geometric shapes.
Updated October 2024
I love throwing in a wee bit of art history with my kids in art class from time to time. It gives them a sense of awe and wonder when we talk about an artist who lived 100 years ago (especially a female artist)!
Sonia Delaunay has always been an artist that I have adored. Her work covered my walls when I was in art school. She helped start the Orphism art movement, defined by its use of strong colors and geometric shapes.
Whenever we study an artist, I print out some of their best and most famous work and tape it to the wall next to where we are working. I also write a few key words that might spark some conversation.
For Sonia Delaunay you might use the words color, pattern, shapes, abstract art, and geometric. We all picked our favorite painting and explained why we loved it.
For this project, we traced geometric shapes and then painted them in bright colors to look like Sonia’s artwork.
How to Make Geometric Paintings
MATERIALS
- Geometric shapes for tracing
- Ruler & pencil
- Paper
- Paint (we used tempera but you could use watercolor)
- Glass of water, paint brushes and damp sponge for drying brush
INSTRUCTIONS
- Trace shapes
To begin, let the kids trace their shapes and create pencil drawings. Younger kids might need help holding down their object while tracing.
- Add paint
When they are happy with their drawings, it’s time to fill in the shapes with paint. I mixed a batch of strong colors for them to use.
If the tempera is too translucent, you can paint over it twice just to get a rich color. This project would work even better on stretched canvases with acrylic paint!
Once your painting is dry, hang it up to display the bright and colorful interpretation of Sonia Delaunay!
To learn more about Sonia Delaunay, you can check out Sonia Delaunay (a brief bio of the artist with photos of her work) and An Interview with Sonia Delaunay.
I hope you give this a try either at home or in the classroom. It is quite simple and very rewarding.
More Artist Studies for Kids
- How to Make Picasso Collages for Kids
- How to Make Frida Kahlo Portraits for Kids
- How to Make Dot Paintings inspired by Yayoi Kusama
- How to Create Wire Sculpture Art Inspired by Ruth Asawa
- How to Make Miró Inspired Magic Animal Masks For Kids
- 30 Children’s Books About Artists + Creativity
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