The 4/5s drew trees to complement their studies in Science class.
How can line be used creatively to make a stylized picture? How can oil pastels be used effectively? The students aimed to use line creatively and made stylized art. A focus of the lesson was color mixing, blending and layering of the oil pastel.
1. Show images of Piet Mondrian’s abstract trees. Discuss how he started out with realistic trees, then they became more and more abstract. Finally, his style progressed to just shapes, lines and colors… the style with primary colors which he is most known for.
2. Sketch a stylized tree with pencil. Make sure the trees branches create sections for coloring in. These lines should touch the edges of the page.
3. Paint over the tree lines with black tempera paint. You might need two coats to make it nice and solid.
4. After the paint is dry, color thickly with oil pastels in each of the white sections (negative space). Layer colors on top of each other to mix colors. Then, use your finger to smudge and blend.
Piet Mondrian’s abstract trees were viewed and we traced the progression of his artistic style from realistic to non-objective. 
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