Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Piet Mondrian Animals



We are continuing our "Wild About Art" theme with artist Piet Mondrian!
Students critiqued Mondrian's work using our "Art Talk" questions based on 
Describing, Analyzing, Interpreting, and Making Judgments.
Most students thought Mondrian's work was boring. I told them we would make them a bit more exciting. 
Then I introduced our "Mondrian Animals" lesson which I found in Arts and Activities Magazine.

Materials: white 12"x18" drawing paper, pencils, rulers, tempera paint in yellow, red, and blue, black sharpies, Red, Yellow, and Blue 12"x18" construction paper, scissors, and glue

Drawing the animal
I made copies of one of my "How to Draw Animals" book and set them on each table. Because students could choose their own animal, I was not going to be able to instruct how to draw each one. I was leery at first, but the third graders' drawings were awesome!
Rulers were used to create Mondrian's straight vertical and horizontal lines

We used Red, Yellow, and Blue tempera paint and students were allowed to leave white spaces as Mondrian did.

When the painting was complete, students traced their drawing and lines with a black sharpie. I had the students put mats under their papers so the marker wouldn't bleed through to the table. 
The paintings were cut out and glued to the student's choice of paper. Either red, yellow, or blue. 






9 comments:

  1. Oh..that is a fun fun spin on it!! Love it...stealin' it!!!!!

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  2. The students really enjoyed the spin on it!

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  3. I like the idea and will use it for my grade 1 class.
    For the grade 2 and three :they will first draw an object, then paint it with lots of colours and on the second day they will make this same painting with only 2 colours or three, minimizing the object to small horizontal and vertical lines, like Momdriaans tree studies.

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  4. I saw this in Arts and Activities magazine years ago. Great stuff! My kids had a great time with the project, and it is DEFINITELY one I repeat.

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  5. I just found this today and boy am I glad I did. I'll be stealing it and linking to it for a new feature I am starting called The Art Fairies Weekly Top Twenty! Check it out on Friday!

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  6. This lesson made the Weekly Top Twenty best art lessons over at The Art Fairy.
    http://msjuliesartschool.blogspot.com/
    Come by and pick up your button if you get a chance. Great lesson!

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  7. That is awesome!! Thank you so much. I love your blog!

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  8. Did this activity with my homeschooled boys and they loved it. Wrote about on my blog: http://livegrownourishcreate.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/mad-for-mondrian/

    Thanks for the inspiration!

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