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Third and Fourth grade collaborative circle paintings

A colorful abstract painting with various swirls, shapes, and patterns in vibrant hues of pink, yellow, green, and red.
Here's an abstract, colorful painting with various shapes, patterns, and vibrant hues like blue, red, green, and yellow.

I was so excited to see this idea of Circle Painting!!   I first learned about it at Barbara’s Thought of the Day and then at We Heart Art.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for this wonderful idea.  We are making several collaborative canvases with this technique and they are going to be raffled off at our end of the year school FUNdraiser.  The kids had a blast creating these paintings.  This is the first video I have edited using Imovie!  I’m planning on making two more canvases with an older class to keep at school for display.


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About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

19 Responses to Third and Fourth grade collaborative circle paintings

  1. Pat says:

    Marcia,

    The paintings are beautiful and I am so envious that you know how to make movies with an IPhone! Owl City is one of my favorite artists and I love that song. Thanks for sharing!

    :)Pat

  2. Wow – so much energy there – I love the bright colours – fabulous!

  3. Marcia says:

    Thanks! Pat, the movie was made by taking video clips with a regular digital camera and then editing it on the computer on the Imovie program. I don't have one of those fancy phones, lol 🙂

  4. Mary says:

    These are beautiful! The children did such a nice job. Did you wait until the end to give them black paint to make some accents? I would love to try this sometime.

  5. Roberta says:

    This looks like a lot of fun and love the way they do not come out looking like mud ;} I can't wait to try this myself. Thanks for the inspiration.

  6. Marcia says:

    Thanks! Yep, the black was only taken out when everything else was painted… just for little accents at the end.

  7. Oh wow… these are beautiful! What a great idea for a school fundraiser! Your video is fantastic! I love the music you put with it too. Great job! So happy you joined us 'in the studio' to share! Thank you! 🙂

  8. Laughlin says:

    These are great! I am totally stealing your idea. Thank you!

  9. Jen says:

    Everything on your site is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I am pinning this collaborative work!! 🙂

  10. Katie Morris says:

    I'm going to show this video to my students if we find time to work on circle paintings! It's been floating around at the back of my head for a while now…

  11. GianneCurry says:

    Such a fan of your site. I did paper pulp art with my kiddos– Thanks for the memories!

    Gianne at cowsgomooandducksgoquack.blogspot.com

    linky love there. =)

  12. Lindsi B says:

    oh my word!!! That is some FINE ART!!! I'd love it if you would share this with my readers for Fun Stuff Fridays. Would you please link up? http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/02/14-days-of-valentines-fun-stuff-fridays_10.html

  13. Joanna Davis says:

    love the idea of auctioning them off!!!
    joanna from we heart art
    http://www.ourartlately.blogspot.com

  14. Mrs. C says:

    These are beyond beautiful!!! Love your video! Your students did a great job! Would love to try something like this with my students! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  15. Cathey Love says:

    LOVE this idea! How did you prevent the muddying of colors? Did each student work with only one color? Or did you just make sure that one brush stayed with one color? Was this all done in one class period?

  16. Pingback: Collaborative Class Artworks -

  17. Andi Werboff says:

    This is beyond wonderful, and I want to try it.I have a few questions:
    1) How large were the canvases?
    2) How many children on each canvas, or did you have them walk around the room with their paint brushes to add the color they had on all the canvases?
    3) Would this work on a large piece of tag board (we have it at school)
    4) How did you set up the project? Did you show them any symmetry, or mandalas?
    5) Do you think this would work with second graders?
    Thank you so much, Marcia

    • 1. The canvases were large.. maybe 2 feet wide?
      2. There were about 6 or 7 kids working on each canvas. Ideally maybe 5 per canvas.
      3. I have definitely done this on tagboard or posterboard.
      4. I did not show them any symmetry or mandalas. I think I just demonstrated for them how to start with a circle and then add designs around it. I may have also shown them a video about “circle paintings” on Youtube. I can’t remember!

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.