Age: Elementary and up
Time: 30 minutes or more
Type of Activity: Art

Materials needed:

• White paper
• Red, yellow and blue paints, markers, or crayons
• Black marker
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Paintbrush
• Water
• Containers

ART

Are you and your kinderartists ready to try your hand at a painting in the style of a master? Excellent. Simply gather a piece of white paper, paints, markers or crayons in the primary colors (red, yellow and blue), a black marker, a ruler, and a pencil. Remember, if you are going to use paint, you will also need a paintbrush, water, and containers too.

Ready, set, go and get your pencil and paper. Super, now divide your paper up by drawing four horizontal lines from one end of the paper to the other. (Horizontal lines move from side to side, just like the horizon.) Next, draw three vertical lines and again, make sure your lines go from one end of your paper to the other. (Vertical lines move up and down.) When your lines have been drawn, use a black marker to darken them up. Make some lines thick and some lines thin. Choose just a few spaces on your paper to fill in with the primary colors -- red, yellow, and blue. Remember to leave a lot of white space and be careful not to overdo the color, because a little goes a long way. Sign your work and display it proudly.

FACTS

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter who was born in 1872 (that's over 100 years ago!). At one time, Mondrian painted realistic landscapes, but as he painted more and more, his style began to change. He started to create abstract images. How did he come to paint this way? Well, the more Mondrian looked at trees, buildings, and vases, the more he saw their basic shapes and colors. You can try this too. Just squint your eyes while you are looking at something and all the details will start to disappear. You will see only shapes and color... no real objects. This is what Mondrian did. Eventually, Mondrian's style consisted of geometric shapes and primary colors. After all, every shape can be created from the basic geometric shapes and every color can be created from the primaries -- red, yellow, and blue.

Now you know.