Piet Mondrian Lesson 1

Big Idea: Artist Appreciation

Enduring Understandings:

Pupils will learn about art history and the works of famous artists, 

recognising the different mediums and techniques used.

 Pupils will also understand how interpretations may differ 

although the themes and concerns are similar.

Introduction to the artist, Piet Mondrian

The pupils were given a short introduction to the artist Piet Mondrian and the progression of his works.

 Refer to the links below for more information.

http://makingartfun.com/htm/f-maf-art-library/piet-mondrian-biography.htm

http://artsmarts4kids.blogspot.sg/2007/12/piet-mondrian.html

Piet Mondrian's earlier works

Mondrian’s first paintings depicted scenes found in real life. They were done in a style similar to impressionism. As his style grew and changed, he stopped using any colors besides the three primaries: red, yellow, and blue. The painting shown below is Avond. This is the first painting in which Mondrian used only primary colors but you can still see the influence of impressionism.

(Extracted from http://artsmarts4kids.blogspot.sg/2007/12/piet-mondrian.html)

Some pupils were then selected to draw their representation

 of a tree on the white board.

After the pupils drew their versions of what they thought a tree looked like, the rest of the class were asked to list down the characteristics of a tree.

Characteristics of a tree (listed by pupils and teacher):

Trunk, leaves, branches, twigs, flowers, fruits, roots, soil, needs sunlight and minerals to grow, gives shade when it is hot, shouldn't stand under a tree when it rains.

At the end of this simple activity, everyone agreed that what the 4 pupils drew had certain characteristics of a tree. However, it did not look like a real tree. 

This was then an opportunity to teach them about 'Drawing with what we see and not what we know'. I further explained that many a times, we tend to draw what we know and not focus on what we see, hence the difference between our drawing and the real thing. Thus, the challenge for the children for that lesson was to go out to the Eco garden, observe the different trees and to try to draw what they see with their eyes fixed on the object.

After the children finished drawing out the structure of the tree, they went back to class 

to add their personal touches using water colour.

Children's Reflections:
Randall: "It's very hard to draw trees."
Shaun: "It's very dirty when you use oil pastels."
Benjamin: "We learn to draw what we see and not what we know. The blending of the water colour was quite hard."
Vionn: "How we draw trees now is very different from how we drew"