Easy Hilma af Klint Art Project and Coloring Page
Below you’ll find an easy step-by-step tutorial for a Hilma af Klint Art Project. She was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings are considered among the first known abstract works in Western art history.
Hilma af Klint Paint Project
About Hilma af Klint
Wassily Kandinsky has often been credited for introducing abstraction into painting around 1911. However, we now know that Hilma af Klint was already producing abstract paintings in 1906. She is thus the earliest representative of abstract art.
Af Klint painted in near isolation from the European avant-garde. She worried that she would not be understood, so she stipulated that her abstract work should be kept out of the public eye for 20 years after her death. While the works were not exhibited for another 20, it has taken even longer for Hilma’s art to gain any serious attention.
In 1986, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) included her works in the exhibition The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. Since then interest in her mystical paintings has grown and today her work is displayed at important museums across the world. In the autumn of 2018, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the Guggenheim museum in New York became the best attended exhibition in the history of the institution.
This abstract drawing and painting project, inspired by Hilma’s work, is open ended and asks students to first draw with some of her favorite shapes. Swirls, squiggles and ovals can be arranged in their own way, in their own varying sizes. Tracing them in crayon and filling in the background with lots of colorful paint, will make this a fun watercolor resist project for students of all ages.
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Hilma af Klint Coloring Page
Materials for Hilma art project
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- Watercolor Paper.
- Real watercolor paper always makes the watercolor paint much more vibrant.
- Pencil.
- The Ticonderoga brand are the most reliable, make nice dark lines when you need them, and are the easiest to erase.
- Crayola Crayons.
- This classic brand always works well.
- Rounded Watercolor Brush.
- A good paint brush can make all the difference in the world. Who can paint small details with one of those big floppy brushes? This style with a sturdy rounded tip were my hands down favorite.
- Liquid Watercolor Paint.
- These paints are so easy to work with, leave such bright colors and last for a long, long time. Well worth the investment.
- Non-Spill Paint Cup.
- Train your students to leave the matching brush in each cup after they use it, and you have an easy system with very little cleanup.
Directions for Hilma au Klint Art Project
Time needed: 45 minutes
Step by step directions for a Hilma af Klint art project
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Using a crayon, draw one large shell somewhere on your paper. Press hard to make a dark line that will keep the watercolors from spreading into each other.
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Switch to another crayon color. Add a long and large loop de loop that goes from one side of the page to the other.
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Switch go another crayon color. Add at least one large oval with rings inside, and one round circle with rings inside. Vary the sizes to make an interesting composition.
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Switch to another crayon color. Fill in any leftover spaces with curly doodle shapes and maybe one or two curved lines that go off the paper.
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Paint with watercolor and experiment with letting some of them bleed into each other.
