A Study of De Stijl and the Piet Mondrian style of painting

Over the years I have come across a number of De Stijl style painting in various galleries, usually by Piet Mondrian and although I understand that as an art movement the De Stijl group has an important part to play in modern abstract painting, I have never fully appreciated or gained from my exposure to this style of painting. It just seams to lack feeling or passion as it dose not provoke a reaction in me.

The De Stijl art movement developed during the first world war, Dutch artists isolated from the rest of the art world due to the Neutrality of the Netherlands during this conflict began exploring New art and founded the De Stijl art movement.  Artist such as Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Bart van der Leck all experimented with this style for several years.  Mondrian named the movement (Neo-Plasticism) However today we commonly refer to this artistic technique as De Stijl, meaning “The Style” which was the name of the journal published by Doesburg about Neo-Plasticism. The De Stijl philosophy proposed total simplicity and abstraction using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and limiting themselves to the primary colours, red, blue and yellow and  three primary values of black, white or grey.










A painting in the style De Stijl
#30 acrylic paint on paper
9 x 9 inches approx







As part of my ongoing study into art and the different ways to make art I added De Stijl to my list, partly as a method of discovery and understanding this particular artistic group but also to expand my own visual vocabulary and although as you can see in this piece I did not fully follow the principals of the De Stijl, I still feel that I gained a great deal from this painting.  I freely admit that I am not totally happy with the colours mixes that I made or the level of care in its execution as some of the lines are not as strait or even as they could (should) be which I feel lets down the panting in terms of composition it is however a good start and has proven that further work in this area will be of huge value.

In conducting my research I discovered a number of sources that threw a huge amount of light into the De Stijl art movement and the lives of its principal artist such as Piet Mondrian which I found very helpful and have included these links for your interest which I am certain you will find of great value.

Mondrian / Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Empty Easel The De Stijl Art Movement

The tate.org

Colourful and simple abstraction

Making art dose not have to be complex or difficult! Even simple patterns or shapes can convey all the atmosphere, interest and energy required to make any painting successful. The simplistic or childish image can hold a power and intercity of colour that goes far beyond what we might expect. Colour alone has a deep and meaningful part to play in the physiology of the human mind, invoking emotional responses in individuals and this is a fact not lost on many famous artist and painters in the modern world.  The work of artists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Josef Albers and Henri Matisse to name a few, all understood the value and impact that colour has in its own right.

In this particular piece I chose to explore a simple arrangement of contrasting colours, being bold and decisive I worked roughly with the oil pastels smoothing and softening it with my fingers. I developed the blending further by applying some heat from a hairdryer much to my girlfriends annoyance latter I added a some white acrylic paint to the bottom as means of creating further contrast and texture and was surprised that the acrylic paint picked up some of the colour subtly tinting the white paint as I did not expect them to mix.

Although I do not normally enjoy working with oil pastels I occasionally use them for rough compositions and colour studies  I do feel that this piece dose work quite well as the texture of the oil pastel enhances this piece effectively. please leave your valued comment and let me know what you think.

A simple abstract artwork 

#29 oil pastel and acrylic paint on paper
9 x 9 inches approx