Art History for Kids: Mondrian-Inspired Tissue Paper Stained Glass

Today we’re going to create a fun, abstract art history for kids project inspired by the famous artist Piet Mondrian.

What is abstract art?  Let’s define it.

Not all art needs to look like something we can recognize in the real world.

Art that does not represent the real world around us is called abstract art.

Piet Mondrian was a well-known abstract artist who lived in the early 1900’s.

Some of his most famous work is a series of paintings where he used simple white backgrounds and a grid of horizontal and vertical black lines and the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue).

We’re going to use one of these art pieces as our inspiration for today’s art project.

 

 

Here are the supplies needed for this project:

• Tissue paper – Red, Yellow, Blue, White
• Black Construction Paper
• White glue
• Water
• Sponge Applicator or Brush
• White Pencil or Crayon
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Wax Paper or Plastic Wrap
• X-Acto Knife (ADULT use ONLY)
• Cutting Board or hard surface to work on

Let’s get started…

First, you need to draw a series of horizontal and vertical lines on your black paper using your ruler with your white pencil or crayon.

Be sure to draw a nice even edge on all sides of your paper to act as the outer frame for your stained glass art.

Next, decide which shapes you would like to remove so that we can fill them in with tissue paper.

*This step is for ADULTS OR OLDER CHILDREN ONLY with supervision:  use the X-Acto knife to remove the sections of paper to create the window openings.

Now it’s time to fill in our window frame with color!

First, we need to prepare our tissue paper and glue.

• Cut your tissue paper into small squares or rectangles to make it easier to apply.
• Create a mixture that is half glue and half water.

We used a cutting board as our work surface so that we could easily set our work aside to dry when finished.

Cover your cutting board or work surface with wax paper or plastic wrap to make the glue/paper easy to remove once dry.

This project needs to be kept flat while it dries.

*Note:  After creating this project a second time, we found that PLASTIC WRAP worked much better than wax paper. 

We used wax paper in this example, but I recommend plastic wrap for the best results.

 

First, apply a thin layer of the glue/water mixture to the area that you would like to apply the paper.  Next, cover the area with tissue paper.  Now apply more of the glue/water mixture to completely saturate the paper.

Be careful to use gentle pressure with the wet tissue paper, it can easily tear.  Fill each opening of your window with the colored tissue paper of your choice.

Set your finished artwork aside and allow to dry.  Once it’s dry, carefully remove the tissue paper stained glass from the plastic wrap.

Voila!  You have a Mondrian-inspired abstract “stained glass” window!

 

Attach your artwork to a window with clear tape and see how beautifully the light shines through the colors!

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