Kandinsky circles

My year 9 class have been exploring work by Kandinsky.

Each of them made a circle in the colours that represented their emotions on the day, and we put them all together to make a rather large, collaborative piece to be displayed around the school.

They then set to work on their own, full circle set. These were really interesting as I didn?t specify a media for them to work in. For some of them, the colours altered as the lessons progressed; dependant on the mood they were in at that particular time.

One of my students started questioning me, ?What is art??.

This was great timing as I?ve just started my Masters in Fine Art, so this is a topic we consider daily. And it opened up a dialogue that we involved the whole class and support staff with about what art actually is and who gets to decide.

And to make my art teacher heart even happier, he started to push the boundaries of his circle work. ?Experimenting with materials and techniques.

My favourite so far is his ripped circle. He used too much water with the watercolours and accidentally ripped the paper. ?Bear in mind that I work at an ASD specialist school. Instead of letting this upset or stop him, I could see him thinking and he ripped it further.
He then asked me if I thought it was art and another really valuable conversation ensued.