Mondrian Art and Maths

On thing I have been very interested in recently is linking Maths to other subjects. I have organised a trip to Bletchley Park with the History department, and liased with a number of other subjects on how they are using Maths in their classes.

However, the one that I have enjoyed the most is two recent projects with the Art department.

With year 5, we started looking at equivalent fractions and percentages, and then I asked them to explore ways of filling in 1/3 of a 3 by 3 grid, using only primary colours.



This then led to a discussion about Mondrian's paintings - how much of each primary colour he used - they reckoned about 70% of his paintings used colour. They then set about using black strips to do the outline, before filling in with accurately drawn and cut rectangles. At various points, they sttod back to suggest improvements to the art work, before carrying on. The finished art work is now prominently displayed in school, and looks great!