Introduction Of all my painting exercises I love this the most. It is such fun, very abstract and very creative. Students of all ages love it. I might ask the students to copy part or all of a Kandinsky painting but this is not necessary. I have four pieces of music for the task in this exercise. One calm, quiet classical piece. A happy, jolly song, a sad, melancholic piece, then a heavy rock loud piece of music. I play them several times to the students and work out how much time I will give them to complete each stage according to the time I have available in the lesson. As an extension task to this I will ask them to develop their best idea into a painting.

Task: Copy the coloured squares into your sketchbook. Then write next to the colours what mood or feeling is best described by the colour, then; think of a musical instrument that sounds most like the colour. For example: Sunny, happy: Flute Colour and Feeling

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Kandinski was one of the first modern artists who painted abstract shapes to express feelings, rather than creating pictures of objects and people. Kandinski loved music, especially classical music. Often when he painted, he would listen to music and try to paint what the music made him feel. He compared the different musical notes to the colors of the rainbow. He tried to paint what the notes would look like if they were colors instead of sounds. When Kandinsky painted the music he enjoyed, the result was beautiful images that are still appreciated today.

Yellow – effect of madness Blue – Deep, peaceful Green Strength, stillness White – silence Black – unmoving, final Orange Healthy, radiant Red – alive, confident, glowing Purple – sad, morbid Loud, sharp trumpets Flutes, cellos, organs Quiet violins Spaces and pauses Final pause, the end Church bells, singing voice Tuba, deep cello Horns, bassoons These are the moods and musical instruments that Kandinsky associated with colour

Yellow-Red-Blue Kandinsky 1925

Composition VI Kandinsky 1913

Painting music Task: Listen to the music provided. Try to imagine what mood is being represented in the piece. Using shapes and colours only; Try to represent the piece of music in an abstract style. You are not allowed to use any pictures or symbols. Try out some ideas in your sketchbook, then develop this into a larger scale painting.

Painting Music Examples