I love creating art of any kind and I love to experiment with different mediums when creating art projects or crafts. I have seen several trends on the internet using wall spackle to create fun abstract art. So I decided to experiment and create my own abstract art with this medium. And I think this activity would be a great one to do with elementary kids thru high school age kids.
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Supplies Needed for Abstract Art Activity
- Wall spackle ( I used DAP heavy weight but light weight would also work well)
- Art canvas blank
- Putty knife
- Hair Comb
- Cardboard
- Tissue paper
- Artist’s palette knife
This abstract art piece is very simple and easy to create and super fun! Wall spackle is a very inexpensive product to buy online or at any home improvement store. Here is the step-by-step guide to creating this fun art form.
The first step is to place your blank canvas on a background of a piece of cardboard of paper just to keep your table surface clean.
To start you will take a putty knife and dig into the spackle and scrape some onto the canvas. Continue this until the entire surface is covered with a layer of the spackle that is about 1/4″ thick. And then now comes the fun part!
Using objects I found around the house I started to make different textures on the canvas. Using a hair comb it will make a fine sawtooth mark on the canvas. I also used a piece of cardboard that I cut triangles on the side so that it would create a wider mark and also cut feather cuts in a piece of cardboard to create a squiggly effect.
Because I wanted to add some other textures besides lines I used tissue paper to create a crinkle effect on the spackle.
This abstract art lesson is one that can be accomplished with many different techniques to create geometric shapes or even just a variety of straight lines.
I can see that abstract painting can be great for kids of any age but I feel that the best would be middle school students or high school students. I think any art teacher would love to teach kids how to use this uncommon medium to create a fun art project.
Once you are happy with your design the next step is to give the piece time to set it up and let it dry completely. This usually takes a good 24 hours, the dry time will also depend on the thickness of the spackle when it was applied. If you need to rush the drying time I would suggest using a hair dryer. Now at this point this can be the final version of the design. However if you want to go further you can add vibrant colors, warm colors or cool colors to create an even more interesting piece of art.
I did this abstract painting on several canvases using different techniques on each one. As you can see the first one I left the background white and experimented with using cardboard, tissue paper and the comb.
On the second canvas I used a toilet paper tube to create a pattern of circles all over the surface. This could also be done with an empty paper towel roll. I was going to use acrylic paint to add color to the canvas but after it dried I enjoyed the look of the canvas with the texture of the white circles so I decided to keep it natural. However you could definitely add interest to this abstract artwork by adding tempura paint, acrylic paint or even try liquid watercolors.
The third canvas I created I wanted to create a less abstract look and wanted to make different flowers on the canvas with the tools I had available. For the daisy looking flowers I used the toilet paper tube and bent it a little to create a petal shape and then used my cardboard that I had feathered with a scissors to create multiple squiggly lines to look like grass. For the lavender like flowers I used a small painter’s putty knife to create indentations and then used it to draw lines around the canvas to act as long pieces of grass.
As I mentioned above I am not usually someone who gravitates to doing any type of abstract art activities but I am so happy I stepped outside of my comfort zone with this project. It was so much fun and was a very budget friendly art lesson.
When I was completing this project my family would walk by and ask what I was doing and when I explained that I was creating abstract designs they each let me know which one was their favorite: overwhelmingly it was the one with the flower heads and grass. And I am happy to say that I was very happy with the end result as well.
In addition to the techniques above other suggestions would be to use a large canvas, use paint brushes to create different strokes or even use a marker to add black lines or some type of shape to the canvas over top of the dried spackle.
A note of warning for when you hang these abstract works of art: make sure to hang in any room but a bathroom or any room that could get moisture on the surface. Although the spackle has dried it is still fragile in nature if it was to fall off a wall or be introduced to water or humidity from a shower.
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