What an intriguing artist the Dutch man, Pieter Mondrian was, who was commonly known as Piet.
Born March 1872 and died in 1944, this abstract artist was a very deep, thoughtful, philosophical man who to look at you wouldn’t of guessed he was an artist – an abstract artist at that, always dressed elegantly in his trim suit. There is even a picture of him wearing his art cloak over his suit while he is painting, but as usual never smiling for the photographer.
Mondrian never married or had children but instead, lived a simple life, ate a very basic diet even till the end of his life. The most extravagent item he would allow himself was a gramaphone. Ballroom dancing was another passion of Mondrian’s, so much so he was quite an accomplished dancer willing to dance with anyone who could keep up with him.
Not only was Piet Mondrian a great artist but a leader in abstract art in the 20th Century. To find out more about this interesting man, click on the websites at the end of this post.
Composition A by Piet Mondrian
Our weekly group art lesson today was based on Mondrian’s abstract works . Using our Mondrian Watercolor Painting by Art Projects for Kids.
Firstly, I gathered all the materials I needed for this lesson and laid it out on the table ready for the kids to begin. On the table waiting for each child was:
- A piece of A4 watercolor paper
- A ruler
- A pencil with an eraser on the end
- Black crayon
- Paint brush – small-medium
- Jar of water
- Watercolors – reds, blues and yellows (in middle of table to share)
Before giving instructions to the kids I began by asking the children what an artist may look like. They came out with fantastic answers which led me into showing each of them individually around the table a picture of Mondrian painting in his suit. I told them to keep it quiet till everyone saw the picture and then at the end they shouted out what he wore to the parents that were there. Very fun. I then gave a short bio on Mondrian and then gave them the following instructions:
- Draw 4 Lines Vertically, using the ruler and lightly using their pencil whatever spacing they like
- Draw 4 Lines Horizontally – spacing at their choosing
- Randomly erase 4 section horizontal lines
- Add 5 lines either vertically or horizontally
- Go over the lines with black crayon
- Using 3 primary colors and ensuring space for white blocks, paint in the rectangles trying to keep the work balanced. (See Art Projects for Kids for more information)
Jediah's Mondrian art work
Kobi's Mondrian art work
WEBSITES ON MONDRIAN
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Mondrian Chronos (Chronology of Mondrian’s works)
I know my wonderful and beautiful Northern Hemisphere friends are getting over their Halloween trick and treating and now working towards their thanksgiving, but for this Aussie ,Christmas is on the brain. I normally leave everything to the last minute and then end up doing nothing, but not this year baby!
This idea came from a blog called Bethany Actually. There are so many inspiring blogs out there, this is one of them. I was wondering how I could get the card paper cheaply as they can be more expensive than what I am prepared to pay for, so I bought a packet of 24 normal Christmas Cards at Aldi’s for $1.49, and then covered the front of the card with colored or white paper that I already have.
A packet of 24 cards at Aldi costing me $1.49. I bought 5 packets costing me a total of $7.45.
For our tin foil festive, I needed aluminium foil, pva glue, cut up colored crepe paper, glitter and an assortment of sequins, starts etcetera and the fun begins.
I wrapped the edges of the tin foil under a book to help keep the foil stable. We then poured big blobs of pva onto the foil, spread it around and then placed our crepe all over it. To keep the crepe paper down, especially the overlapping ones, I diluted glue with water and brushed it over. We then glued on glitter and scattered our sequins over the crepe paper.
Kobi giving off one of his cheesy grins while displaying his accomplished work of art.
Another piece of decorated tin foil. They suggest to use colored tissue paper for this but I had a lot of crepe paper so I thought I would use that instead. I am really impressed with the effect it has. With the foil underneath it gives the crepe a metallic look and the end result is also a great texture.
When the decorated tin foil is dry, using a premade stencil I outlined the back of the foil where I was to cut. They look so fun - I love lots of color.
An example of a finished card.
My boys get up quite early – as for me – I am a little slower than they are, so when I arise they have been up about 2 hours before me. We have a rule in our house that there is absolutely no screens in the morning (most days actually) but definately not the a.m. That means the boys have time for themselves and they are usually doing something productive. I walked into the kitchen today and this is the first thing that I saw. Stuff like this warms my heart.
This morning Jediah made berry hotcakes for breakfast all by himself. One of my goals this year is to see the boys be able to cook recipes by themselves and it is so satisifying seeing this come to pass. Jediah can cook two main meals, lemon coconut cake and hotcakes all by himself now. It is exciting to see him grow in this life skill, especiall when I know some people struggle to even cook an egg. Oh yeah – I forgot to mention the boys make a beautiful egg thing for their breakfasts – they don’t forget the parsley on top. I love it.
Here is Jediah cooking his pancakes/hotcakes
Jediah's berry pancakes (hotcakes) stack
HOTCAKES RECIPE that we use:
- 2 Cups Self Raising Flour (All Purpose flour – add 2 teaspoons baking powder)
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- Double pinch of Bi-Carbonate Soda
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups milk (bit more if you don’t want them so heavy)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. (we personally don’t sift). Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in egg and enough milk to give a smooth creamy pouring consistency. Drop about 1/2 cup of batter into a greased frying pan (skillet). Allow room for spreading. When bubbles appear turn pikelets and cook until lightly browned.
NOTE: (I don’t have any milk products, so we always use Soy milk in cooking – we have found it makes no difference at all to the recipe).
I based our weekly group art lesson today on the above quote by the well known American Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a quote he repeatedly told his students and as written by “Art Projects for Kids“, (where I got todays lesson from), “that’s because they (limitations) force us to find answers we might not otherwise have discovered.”
Before we began our art, I showed the kids two books I borrowed from the library. Just as I was awed by Lloyd Wrights works so were they. It is incredible to think that this most influential and imaginative artchitect of the 20th Century, had a career lasting almost 70 years in which he designed 1141 
homes and buildings, and of those 532 were completed by his death at the age of 92. He not only influenced design styles in America but throughout Europe and Asia, making a global impact on modern Architecture.
Written in the above book, it struck me again just how much a parents influence can play on a childs life and for generations to come “from his father, William Russell Carey Wright, a preacher and musician, he learned the principles of Unitarianism and the unity of all things, which he was to translate into his own buildings. His father also imbued in him a love of music, while his mother set his sights on architectures. She gave him a gift that lasted him a lifetime: geometric blocks and spatial teaching tools developed by the German educator Friedrich Foebel. The cubes, triangles and spheres with which he spent his childhood were to emerge transformed as buildings and as the overriding motifs inside them.” Click here to read the influence Frank Lloyd Wright had on his children and the generations thereafter.
After I showed the kids these two books I explained to them that the goal for this lesson was to make a really simple, bold image but with some restrictions in place. They were to only draw one tree, one hill and hearts that can be any size and any place in the picture. There was to be no sun, no clouds, no flowers. Out came the pencils, the oil pastels and everyone set to work.
Jediah working on the first stage of his picture
Jediah's end result
Kobi working on the first stage of his drawing
Kobi's end result
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT SITES
Before we went off to our art time in the afternoon, Kobi made Brownies by himself for the first time , but still under the instruction of mum. Kobi did all the measuring, pouring, melting, and beating and the end product was beautiful. We normally put chocolate frosting on top but I had no chocolate today – still very yummy Brownies.
We call this recipe JENNIFERS BROWNIE as my dear American friend Jennifer gave this recipe to me. We love it and cook it all the time.
- Put in mixing bowl:- 2 cups sugar, 2 Cups All purpose Flour (Self Raising Flour)
- Put in saucepan and melt: – 1 Cup water, 1 Cup butter, 4-5 Tablespoons cocoa
- Pour over dry ingredients and mix
- Add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla or coffee
- Mix in a seperate small bowl:- 1/2 cup sour milk (milk & Tablespoon vinegar), pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda. When this is finished rising/frothing, pour into mixture and mix.
- Pour into a slice/bar tin and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes in a moderate oven
CHOCOLATE FROSTING FOR BROWNIE
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1 Cup icing sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- Dash of coffee
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup chocolate chips
Melt butter and then add icing sugar & milk. Still still sugar is dissolved. Add dash of coffee and whisk. Take off heat and add chocolate chips. If not glossy add a little milk at a time.
An example of Sgraffito - a sgraffito mural in Olomouc (Czech Republic)
Today I felt all out of sorts, so after the boys finished their maths we all sat down and did an art project suggested by “Art Projects for Kids” – the Turkey Scratch Drawing. It turned out quite easy to do with fantastic effect, which is called sgraffito - “A technique where a top layer of color is scratched to reveal a colour beneath. The term comes from the Italian word sgraffire meaning (literally) “to scratch”.
As suggested by the lesson, we downloaded the outline of the turkey, we all colored it in with oil pastels then covered over our pictures with a black oil pastel. After this was completed, using a big safety pin we scratched away.
Jediah's (10yo) sgraffito art work
Kobi's sgraffito art work
Yes, even mama had a try
Kobi was so inspired by this technique he tried another sgraffito piece of work
Kobi's extra sgraffito work with oil pastels
Ben my man is away at the moment on work commitments and I have really been challenged to have more fun moments with my boys, to genuinely delight in their company and who they are. They are great boys who love their mum and bless me so much. I want to pack their childhood with good memories and a strong, rich godly heritage that they can pass onto their children and generations on.
Today has been a home day and it was nice to just hang, but I was also aware how wonderful the weather was and also an opportunity to do something with my boys could easily be missed. So, I stepped outside my comfort zone and announced to the boys to grab their fishing rods as we were going fishing at the Reserve down the road.
I made a quick round of sausage rolls for dinner, the boys put chairs in the car, grabbed the rods and fishing gear and then realised we had no bait. Okay,no worries, lures had to do, so off we went.
We found a good little fishing spot (yes, I am such an expert – NOT) got ourselves settled and kept dunking those lures, while we gobbled up the sausage rolls. As I type this an idea popped into my head that maybe we could of used the sausage meat in our rolls as bait - I’m sure that would of caught something. Alas, we caught no fish but Jediah had great skill in catching himself. Not sure how he did it, but he did it well, and after cutting two holes in his pants we managed to rescue him. A fun time in all and so glad we did it.
Jediah's (10yo) drawings of pokemon
Kobi's (8yo) Pokemon drawing
