October 5th, 2010 Preschool art appreciation with Mondrian Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Homemade, Media, play activities, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

We had many opportunities to visit the Art Museum and now the big art museum is a few hours away we’ve really noticed how much we miss seeing the gallery. Not being on the doorstep of a major art gallery will not dampen our enthusiasm for all things art based. Although we will have to be more deliberate.

The boys are really into straight lines and bold colours at the moment, so it wasn’t difficult to choose Piet Mondrian as our artist.

After looking a selection of images the boys were really surprised to see how art isn’t just about painting. They’d never thought of a room ( picture 1) or a cake ( picture 4) in the style of a painting. Then we looked at how we could reproduce our own “Mondrian style” painting.

We realised it was shapes. They chose 3 sizes of rectangle and 2 sizes of square from what we had already.

Draw around the shape. Try and keep the edges straight. Colour a block in crayon applying a lot of pressure.( Something most preschoolers don’t need to be reminded)

Complete the picture. Screw up the picture into a ball and undo. ( This was hard for one who refused to screw up his creation and exciting for the other who loved the idea)

The crayon appears cracked and the texture is very different than the flat picture we usually do in art. I’m sure there’s a correct term for this but alas I don’t know.

I put the paper between two newspapers and ironed on a cool iron to flatten the paper more but keep the texture.

We covered the finished picture with white glue and water wash to make it shiny. When it’s on the wall the light reflects off the surfaces.

This post is part of  Get crafty ,

Little Masterpieces

and Artists and Art

Melitsa Avila is a former teacher, mother of three boys and military wife who talks about living an intentional play lifestyle using practical and everyday play activities to do with the under 5s. She publishes related ebooks & newsletters. Melitsa is the host and producer of a weekly Early Childhood radio show: Raising Playful Tots bringing parents and carers together with Early childhood practitioners. Thanks for reading!

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