Bridget Riley Inspired Abstract Watercolor
Bridget Riley is an English abstract painter known for her op art paintings. She became interested in Optical Art and people were amazed at the way her paintings seemed to move. The Tate in London has a great website dedicated to her that explains her work in kid-friendly terms. In the 60s she began to experiment with color, line, and shape. Our project is inspired by her artwork called Nataraja. It’s a painting she created after she visited India and reminds her of dancing.
MATERIALS:
+ paper
+ pencil
+ straight edge/ruler
+ watercolor
+ water and brush
Using your straight edge, create several horizontal lines across your paper. I made nine and I wouldn’t do more than that. This will already create several spaces to paint in, anymore and you’ll be painting for a looonnnngg time. Keep it simple!
Once you have those horizontal lines in place it’s time to use the straight edge to create diagonal lines. I lined up my ruler at the end of each horizontal line to create my diagonals. You can see I worked down one side of the paper and then switched so I didn’t run out of horizontal lines. Fill the paper! You can see the finished pattern below.
Now it’s up to you to watercolor each shape. Jump around with colors, placing different colors next to each other. Fill the paper until you’ve painted every rhombus (diamond shape) in. Let them dry and enjoy the sunny brightness! Happy making!
