Joan Miro, "Ladders Cross the Blue Sky in a Wheel of Fire". 1953. 

For this introduction to abstraction, students studied the work of Spanish Artist Joan Miro. We talked about where he got his ideas for his strange paintings. He was inspired by looking at tiny creatures under a microscope. He was also influenced by constellations and maps people had drawn, plotting stars in the sky.
Second grade students explored abstract lines and shapes as they "took a line for a walk" using black india ink to create an unusual creature shape.
They added eyes , mouth, teeth, tentacles, wings and other embellishments to bring their creature to life. Then in the atmosphere surrounding their creature they painted strange lines and symbols, like the ones we studied in the backgrounds of the Miro's paintings.
When the ink drawings were dry, students colored them in with cray-pas using blending techniques. Finally they painted in their backgrounds using watercolor resist.