During the first lockdown (March 2020 in the UK) every week I challenged myself in making at least one abstract drawing using oil pastels.
In those unsettling days I felt the need to unwind by doing something creative to focus on. I chose a form of art that was quick, simple and suitable to do with my children around.
The input for the first drawing came from my daughter’s teacher that suggested to take a look at a famous Kandinsky’s painting: “Squares with concentric circles”.
I recreated it with my little girl using oil colours bought ages ago and never used. I immediately liked those colours for the smooth, buttery texture on paper and their bold and bright tones. After the first drawing, more than fifty followed. Every single drawing (in A4 size) lit up my day! I enjoyed playing with different geometric shapes and colours combinations.
A secret? I always start from red, the beating heart of the drawing.
I let myself be inspired by artists like Paul Klee, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Sonia Delaunay.
Many drawings, as you can imagine, have the rainbow as a theme, rendered in different shapes, others are seasons or events related.
Two are inspired by an international project about art as a daily ritual helping people to cope with the pandemic.
So colourful, these oil pastels drawings brought so much joy to me that I turned them into items to brighten the home. They become placemats, bookmarks, calendars and wall compositions.
For my latest artworks head over to my artistic accounts on Instagram and Facebook.
Activity for kids – Printable colouring pages
Free your imagination drawing and colouring simple geometric shapes with your children. Or try and ask your child to colour similar geometric figures with the same colour (for example: all squares in green), or to colour the areas labelled with the same number with the same colour (for examples number 1 in yellow), or challenge yourself with symmetry!
Here are three printable colouring sheets (in pdf) you can download.
Printable 1 – Printable 2 – Printable 3
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Crafty Messy Mom 