Mondrian is one of my oldest memories of art, from seeing originals of his work at a museum when I was about 9 in Los Angeles. That day my mother bought me a small print from the gift shop, and it hung in my bedroom for many years. I wish I knew what that piece was called -- and I'll be damned if I can find the print.

But, in the 40+ years since seeing my first Mondrian, I have grown to love all his works and learned there are more than just the ones that look like Legos, haha. I really love his trees (I have a weakness for trees) and his non-primary-colored abstracts.

However, I am inspired for this workshop by a very small Mondrian that my daughter just saw at the Yale University Art Gallery. She knows I like Mondrian and sent me this photo from the gallery. It's called Fox Trot B and it was painted in 1929.

Mondrian Fox Trot Fun - image 1 - student project

I thought it would be a perfect launchpad for this workshop's project because it has two nicely-placed white spaces that are just waiting for me to throw some kind of design in there.

So, then I got thinking about WHAT could go in those white spaces? Here are two designs I came up with:

Mondrian Fox Trot Fun - image 2 - student project

I really like this idea of some kind of design that will allow the white background to still show through, but fill in the white spaces with something fun.

Mondrian Fox Trot Fun - image 3 - student project

I love to letter, and also felt like this would be a great canvas for a large single capital letter, and then maybe a small name on the side, or maybe an abstract design in the smaller white space. I think the possibilities for this are endless!

I plan to keep the original primary colors for the colored blocks, but may experiment with other colors for the designs or letters in the white spaces. I'm not sure yet....and, yes, I know, time is running out!

I will post more photos as I progress.....

--------

Well, I promised photos in progress, but I was too busy painting to post!

I had wanted to challenge myself and NOT use tape for this project. I had wanted my lines to be as straight as I could get them without using tape. As such, my lines may not be the straightest. But I wanted to challenge myself. I had a great time painting the original Mondrian as shown here:

Mondrian Fox Trot Fun - image 4 - student project

And then it was time to personalize it. I had decided already to go with the "squiggles" sketch I had posted earlier this week. But I decided to make some changes to my design. For the designs, I had toyed with the idea of using only colors that WEREN'T already in this painting, like green and brown. I had toyed with the idea of using only black for the designs. In the end, I went with red, blue and black, to keep a sense of cohesiveness amongst all the elements of the painting.

Mondrian Fox Trot Fun - image 5 - student project

I ended up loving my end result, imperfect black lines and all. I have enjoyed learning more about Piet Mondrian and his work as a result of this workshop.

Carella Herberger

1

25