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This is Piet Mondrian. He was born in 1872 in The Netherlands. From a young age, Mondrian loved art and knew he wanted to be an artist.

Piet Mondrian

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Mondrian’s early paintings were based on very realistic subject matter- like this tree. However, you can see how the artist starts to “abstract” the form, making it more blocky and geometric.

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Mondrian started to make his images much more abstract when he moved from the Netherlands to Paris, France and became friends with the Cubist artists Pablo Picasso and George Braque. You can see how these two paintings focus on color and geometric shape more than the subject that inspired them.

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Mondrian thought that art should be a spiritual process, and that nature should inspire the paintings, but that form, shape and color should be emphasized more than the illusion of reality.

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You can see how he has reduced his painting to only the essential elements- Primary Colors, Black Lines and simple geometric shapes. They have a harmonious sense of balance and stability.

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Today we will be using black lines and primary colors to create a work of art inspired by Piet Mondrian.