This term in Reception, we have enjoyed exploring the work of artist Piet Mondrian.
We began by learning about his life, and discovered that he was born in the Netherlands in 1872. The children were fascinated to see how his artwork changed over time. We looked at some of his earlier paintings, where we could clearly spot lots of real life things like houses, trees and flowers, and compared these to his later paintings which did not look like real life at all! Together we discussed what we could see in the paintings which was very interesting.
As we explored further, we noticed how Mondrian used straight lines, shapes and blocks of colour. This kind of art was not supposed to look like real life! This led us to thinking the primary colours: red, blue and yellow which Mondrian used a lot in his art. We talked about how these can be mixed to create new colours such as green, purple and brown. The children enjoyed sharing their experiences of experimenting with colour mixing.
To bring our learning to life, the children created their own Mondrian inspired artwork. They carefully used rulers and black felt tip pens to draw straight vertical and horizontal lines, creating a range of squares and rectangles. They then used paint to fill the spaces with the primary colours, thinking carefully about their choices and composition.
It was wonderful to see the children thinking really carefully about how to arrange their lines and which blocks of colour to use as they produced their own unique pieces inspired by Mondrian’s style.
Well done Reception! I think we have some artists in the making!
