Abstract Collage Project For Kids Inspired By Gillian Ayers

Fortune does favor the bold and you'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try.

-Sheryl Sandberg

I often get asked if younger kids (under grade 3) are really interested in "artist studies" and in my experience the answer is a resounding yes! It's all in the introduction.

Today I am delighted to welcome someone who truly does a wonderful job of introducing “Master Artists” to young people: The lovely Gillian from Making Mini Masters. I first discovered the Mini Master feed while hosting a Frida themed challenge on instagram. Gillian tagged me in the most beautiful Frida inspired flower crown photos of her girls and I have been consistently wow’d by her ever since.

Gillian takes a deep dive approach to her artist studies - generally spending weeks or months on a specific artist.

Gillian does a wonderful job of demonstrating how each one of her projects can be modified for pre K-pre teen. I think you will find that the Mini Master feed is a great source of inspiration and a must follow!

So let’s get to it.. shall we? Meet the joyous colorful abstracts of UK artist Gillian Ayers. I will let (Making Mini Masters) Gillian take it from here..

When we were introduced to the artist Gillian Ayres (1930-2018), we couldn’t help but fall in love with the world of magical color in which she created. I suppose the name Gillian was also a happy coincidence!

Gillian Ayers was born in 1930 to a respected and prosperous family in South-West London. 13-year-old Gillian longed to be an artist which was considered an act of rebellion at the time. Growing up she attended an affluent school for girls, where she refused to take exams that she viewed as “too bourgeois”. At 16 she attended art school and shortly after, started her career as an art teacher. Gillian quickly rose to the head of the painting department. In 1951 she married fellow painter Henry Mundy and gave birth to her only child Sam in 1966. Her marriage to Mundy failed, however, the two remained lifelong friends.

Within the art world Gillian was a breath of fresh air. She took abstract expressionism, stripped it from all notions of intellectualized conception and quite simply used her mode of abstraction for self expression and the aesthetic of décor. Uninfluenced by currents trends, her passion for the visual led her to choose bold clashing colors which kept her paintings fresh and a joyful experience to be around. She never worked with a theme or made a series of paintings. Each painting was a new birth with no preconceived ideas other than drawing from her own life experience. Her paintings regularly showcase a star and palm motif which appear to be a nod to one of her painting heroes, Henri Matisse. At times she mimicked the painting approach of Jackson Pollock as she often placed her paintings on the floor.

After a long life of painting, Gillian Ayres died April 11 2018 having received many awards such as an OBE, Royal Academician and a Sargent Fellowship. Her implausible talent has gifted us with paintings of explosive colour from an artist who dedicated her life to a feeling of honesty and purity.

Materials:

** Please note that we participate in the Amazon Affiliate program. This means if you purchase any of the products linked here we will receive a tiny sales commission at no additional cost to you. We only link to products we use and love. Your support helps us keep this site running - thank you!

Recreating a Gillian Ayres painting for us actually involved no paint at all. We decided to use craft foam sheets because of their vibrancy and solid color. Foam happens to also be really fun to cut! Creating a painting with craft foam can be done in two ways; with a pre sketched plan or you could experiment with a free form approach.

If you are working with older kids or a group that likes a more structured process you can start by making a preliminary sketch of your design. Then place your sketch on top of your chosen color. Using a blunt pencil trace around your designs. This should leave an impression on the foam that you can use as a guide for cutting. Continue until you have almost jig-sawed all the pieces together. **This is definitely an approach for older children or teens as the multi-steps make it a longer and more tedious process.

Abstract Collage Project For Kids Inspired By Gillian Ayers Mini Masters

We took a more improvised approach to our artwork as Gillian Ayres would have. We began without any preconceived ideas. We drew our inspiration from Gillian’s use of shape, form, and color choices. We also paid homage to her iconic star or palm motifs. This approach felt honest and connected to Gillian’s “in the flow” approach to art making and the end results held an element of surprise!