Mark Rothko Art Project 

To create a piece of work in homage to that of Mark Rothko, you can use most art materials. Rothko used paint on canvas, but another method would be to use pastels and paper.

Choose two coloured pastels that contrast with the paper you are using as a base.

Use your pastels to block in two rectangles of colour, allowing a gap around them as shown below. You could use another pastel to add a third block of colour around the edges, covering all of the visible paper.

Use your finger, or a rolled-up piece of paper, to gently smudge the area around each block of colour, allowing it to softly blend into the background (either the bare paper or the third colour you used).

Once all the edges are smudged, you are left with the three-coloured, block effect that Mark Rothko was famous for:

Try the technique using different colour groups, use harshly contrasting colours or similar hues of one colour in particular, and see what difference it makes to the 'feeling' of the work.

What mood does your version evoke?

Mark Rothko.