Oostzijdse Mill with Extended Blue, Yellow and Purple Sky

This painting was completed in 1907-08, a two year period in which the artist produced a large number of landscape paintings, mostly of the Dutch countryside, and all showing a developing use and understanding of colour.

Mondrian regularly walked along the Gein river as a young artist, seeking suitable spots from which to work. He produced both drawings and paintings, and would be particularly interested in local villages, trees, windmills, farmed fields and also lined river banks where trees would decorate this flat environment. Whilst his locations were traditionally charming, he did start to experiment with different colour schemes during this period of several years. He was a follower of Van Gogh and appreciated the post-impressionist colour schemes, also taking note of the Fauvists too, from time to time.

Followers of this artist can visit Oostzijdse Mill in person and perhaps try to find the same angle used by the artist within this painting. The mill has been preserved for tourism and regularly receives visitors due to its own beauty as well as its connection to the career of Piet Mondrian. It can be found in the Dutch region of Abcoude, along the Gein river. Some young artists have been known to make the visit and create a number of sketches of this building from different angles, and there is a lot of variety available across artworks just by changing the perspective and featuring other elements in it's vicinity.