Hello my name is Sui I'm an artist and today we're going to explore how to
paint like Kandinsky I'm going to draw inspiration from one of the most popular
pa intings at Tate Cossacks Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art service
credited with painting one of the first abstract works he was a pioneer of the
abstract painting he believed paintings did not need to represent the real world
and considered colour to have a powerful spiritual impact he associated musical
tones with particular colours and forms and believed that the way colours and
lines were arranged in a painting to express powerful emotions to paint like
Kandinsky you need a canvas a palette a variety of brushes and tools paint
medium and some inspiration for me Cossacks feels quite celebratory and
triumphant perhaps drawn from a memory Kandinsky had of his home country so
with that in mind I've chosen some photographs of South Korea where I grew up
I'm going to use these as a starting point for my painting after you have
found your inspiration you can sketch out your idea to have a plan of what
you're going to paint Kandinsky use oil paint but I'll recommend using acrylics
because of their faster drying time I'm going to mix some very pale colors to
cover the white canvas I don't think Kandinsky painted from the blank canvas
and this will also give some depths to start with add some medium to dilute
your paint and create thinner texture to your base layer you can quite freely
just spread out the paint I probably leave some gaps because
secondly I'm going to mix up with a little bit of colder color so once put
together they kind of creates quite nice depths clean your brushes between
applying its color and wipe any excess water onto some kitchen paper once the
first layer is dry you can begin adding the second layer just spread out kind of
gets a little bit lighter don't worry too much about filling those gaps and
let them lay up kandinsky was very playful in the way he used paint
mixing up techniques styles and textures laying the canvas flat allows me to
apply a thinner textured paint for my outline use black thinned down with some medium to
create a similar effect to the bold lines
Kandinsky used in Cossacks I'm going to start with traditional rooftops and
we're going to the tower blocks growing up in South Korea during this period of
change was exciting the traditional buildings next to the high-rise blocks
are symbolic of my childhood take a break to let your outline fully dry
before applying the next layer of color work with each color individually
building the layers this also stops the paint drying out on the palette I chose
those colors based on the palette in Cossacks and to me the selections of
color seems to be quite celebratory while the canvas is stapling
apply any thinner layers of color that could drip or bleed once dry take a
step back and get ready to add the final touches go over any black lines which
you think need to be a little bolder
one of the things that stands out to me in Cossacks is Kandinsky's use of white to
highlight the main figures in the painting I'm choosing to highlight the
buildings in my painting as I want them to be the focal point use a similar
technique to bring your painting to life I hope you feel as inspired as I am by
Kandinsky why not have a go yourself