Try Splatter Painting To Study Abstract-Expressionist 20th Century Art The Fun Way

When we studied art movements of the 20th Century, we enjoyed splatter painting to learn more about Abstract-Expressionistic Art.

You see, in our history lessons, we use weekly history labs to bring the past alive and enjoy hands-on fun!

First, let me tell you a little bit about Abstract-Expressionistic Art.

In Abstract-Expressionistic art, the act of creating the work is more important than the final product.

One famous artist, Jackson Pollack, would place a large white canvas in the middle of the floor and throw paint in different methods onto the canvas. He also dripped the paint or dip yarn in paint and pulled the yarn across the canvas. Pollack is remembered for his drip paintings.

Do you remember the movie Princess Diaries? The mother is an artist and she pops balloons that are filled with paint. When the paint bursts, it splatters onto a canvas. She is painting in the Abstract-Expressionist style. 

We wanted to have some hands-on learning fun with Abstract-Expressionistic Art.

We did not fill balloons with paint and pop them, as fun as that sounds. That’s way too much mess for me! Here’s what we did. 

We made our own splatter paintings.

Our Splatter Painting History Lab

This is a very messy history lab so we did it outside on a picnic table covered with newspapers.

If you do it inside, cover everything in the room that would be ruined by paint. We gathered our supplies:

• Tempura Paint in Different Colors (you can use Acrylic too, but mix it with water)
• Big Chunky Paintbrushes
• Small Spoons
• Art Canvas in preferred size or Watercolor Paper in preferred size.

We followed these directions:

• Place canvas, or paper on top of newspapers (or directly on the ground outside)
• Dip paintbrush in one color of paint and flick wrist to splatter paint on canvas
• Use small spoons to drop paint on canvas
• Continue splattering with as different colors as desired
• Try splattering close to canvas and from far away
• Try using circular motions or up/down motions
• Experiment with different types of wrist flicking
• Let paint dry

Everyone was amazed at how cute our paintings turned out!

We enjoyed our masterpieces and had fun learning about Abstract-Expressionistic Art. 

We hope you appetite is whetted for learning more about the 20th Century. It is an exciting time in history to delve into.

Until next time, Happy Homeschooling!

​For the glory of the Author of History,
​Meredith Curtis