Thursday, January 29, 2009

Create Your Own Jackson Pollock Masterpiece

I have posted before about Jackson Pollock and his drip paintings. You may remember that Pollock created his paintings by laying large pieces of canvas on the floor of his studio and dripping paint onto them. This is a messy process.

Today, make your own Jackson Pollock painting without all the mess.

Supplies Needed:

Paint
Plastic Spoon
Marbles
Box Top
Paper
Cover your workspace before you begin. You’ll need a place to set your paint covered spoon and marbles. You may also want a cup of water for rinsing you spoon. Or just use a different spoon for each color paint.

Set your sheet of paper inside the box lid.

Squirt paint onto your spoon. Drop a marble into the paint on the spoon and roll it around until it is covered with paint. You may need to squirt a little more paint on top of the marble.

Drop the marble into the box lid and roll it around. You may wish to coat the marble in paint a few times before switching to the next color. Just roll it in the spoon again, then drop it back on the paper.
Rinse your spoon or use a new one. Squirt a new paint color onto your spoon and roll a clean marble in it. Drop the marble into the box lid and roll it around.

Repeat with as many colors as you want. I recommend using about five colors.
Let your painting dry. Remove it from the box lid and enjoy!

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4 comments:

PeterParis said...

I actually did a "Pollock painting" when I was about 12 (without then knowing about Pollock). I decided to let it go as garbage when I moved to a smaller flat two years ago (so disppointed that my kids didn't want it)! :-(

I saw a number of Pollocks when I recently visited the Peggy Guggenheim home / museum in Venice; she was the one who really launched him I believe. ... and there is an exhibition with his paintings in Paris right now - which I have not yet visited - shame on me!

Jessica said...

I must say, I'm not a huge fan of Jackson Pollock's work. I can understand why he might have enjoyed creating those enormous drip paintings, though. It's fun to be messy with paint. And actually, rolling marbles around in the box lid was fun, too.

Who knows? Maybe someone found your painting in the garbage and is now treasuring it, thinking it's worth a million bucks. That happens sometimes...

Dana Leeds said...

Another wondeful post that has me excited! I wish it wasn't late and my daughter and I could do some art right now! :-)

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this incredible project! I did this with my second grade class after learning about Jackson Pollock. It was a HUGE success!