Art in the Style of …

Piet Mondrian

Introduction:

Piet Mondrian was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and
group. He evolved an art form which he termed Neo-Plasticism. This
consisted of white ground, upon which was painted a grid of vertical and
horizontal black lines and the three primary colours.

The works of Piet Mondrian can be discussed in reference to his use of line.
Mondrian relied heavily upon lines which sometimes cross, sometimes meet,
and sometimes don’t meet, but are always vertical or horizontal.

Mondrian also used the 3 primary colours, which would be pure colours, tints,
or shades (tints add white and shades add black). The paintings would also
use black, white or grey – the 3 primary non-colours. Some of his paintings
would have more colour, and some would have less. To Mondrian, the line
and form was more important than colour.

Materials:

White art paper

Pencil and ruler

Acrylic or tempera paint

Paint brushes
Black electrical tape (optional)

Procedure:

Begin by practicing the mixing of shades and tints. Using small amounts of
paint, add white a tiny bit at a time to a pure primary colour, each time
making marks on a paper. This creates tints. Next, add black a tiny bit at a
time to a pure primary colour, each time making marks on a paper. This
creates shades. Do this with each primary colour. Also try mixing black and
white to create various shades of grey.

On a piece of paper, lightly draw vertical and horizontal lines with a pencil
and ruler, to create boxes of various sizes. When you are happy with the
layout of the lines, paint them in with black paint and a thick brush. Primary
grades may wish to use black electrical tape for this stage.

Decide if you plan to use pure colours, shades, or tints. Once your black lines
have dried, paint in some of the boxes, so that the entire box is one colour.
Leave some of the boxes white.