Art History: Piet Mondrian

Making the decision to home school Isaac has waned and waxed in my mind for a while, but after getting a trial run with his pre-school, I'm more confident in my abilities to teach him effectively and his enthusiasm to learn. He's a very visual and physical learner so I can create lessons that he can connect with a bit more. Art is where we both come alive... since I graduated college with a K-12 Art Education degree, it's be sad if I couldn't teach him art well.

At 4, he's a painter. He LOVES painting and drawing. He does a great job, so now my job is to cultivate his love of it and instill the theories and history of art so he has a firmer grasp of what art actually is.

Today was the first time I put some art history into his lesson. We've been working on coloring inside the lines, which he's great at at only 4, so Piet Mondrian seems like an easy step to take.

We started by reading a little about Mondrian's history - who he was, what he studied and the ideas behind his work. I also incorporated a bit of color theory (not mixing them to make secondary colors because Mondrian only used primary), visual balance (which we still need to work on), line (vertical/horizontal vs. diagonal) and shape.

Then I gave him his paper and a square template to trace. I had him place it around on the paper and taught him how to trace it properly (dragging the pencil toward yourself instead of pushing it away and having it get off track). He traced it 5 times in different places keeping the lines vertical and horizontal (NOT diagonal) and using his space on his paper. He needed some guidance.

After tracing the squares in pencil, he drew over them again in black crayon.

Painting... this is what he'd been waiting for. Red is his favorite color so we used that first and in the most places. He chose 3 spots to paint red, 2 spots yellow and 1 spot blue. I wanted his to grasp "balance" and paint it visually balanced, but he didn't quite grasp that idea completely. He's still in pre-school though so we have time to "get" it.

While painting, I reminded him to stay within the lines or his colors would mix (Mondrian only used primaries, he did not mix the colors) and quizzing him on what color the two mixed colors would make.

I have to say, I'm proud of his final project. I think he did a great job for being 4 and he was pretty pleased with himself too. I think a trip to the art museum is due so he can see first hand some of the artists and pieces we're going to be studying. I love that he loves art.