Hundertwasser Collage

We learned about Freidensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian naturalist, artist, philosopher, and architect.  His art and buildings include vivid bright colors, people, and things from nature.  The following book is an excellent resource for information and images.

The first step in the project is to paint two 12X18 sheets of white paper with tempera.  One gets horizontal designs in cool colors (blue, purple, green, turquoise), the other gets horizontal designs in warm colors (red, orange, yellow, magenta.)

I showed students how to paint over dried paint, and then scrape a design with the handle of the paintbrush.
The color underneath is revealed in the design.

Next, students made flowers or trees.  They created layered circles with one of their sheets of painted paper.  The other sheet of paper served as a background.  We talked about using an odd number of flowers, as it's more pleasing to the eye.  I also asked students to make some flowers large, some small. Some short, some tall.  Some can even overlap.  Then, students had the option to add leaves, thorns, or grass.  This project took four class periods and was a challenge to keep all the papers organized, but it was worth it.  Every student made a beautiful picture that is worth framing!

Click here to see the lesson that inspired this project.