These last few weeks three of our classes have been exploring the work of Vincent Van Gogh, an artist most children really enjoy. I think his bold brush strokes and gorgeous colors attract them to his paintings, and for me there is a child-like innocence and energy that radiates from his work that I adore.
"Sunflowers" 1889
Since spring is in the air, we looked at Van Gogh's sunflower series of paintings and each class recreated this one together. We first painted the background in tempera paint on 24" x 36" paper. We noted Van Gogh used large brush strokes and often "mixed" his colors directly on his canvas. I printed out a copy of his original painting and cut out the vase, which I applied to our painted background. After looking closely at sunflowers in our classroom to understand their structure, each child created one of their own flowers using crayon or crayon resist and watercolors. We made our stems from tissue paper, attached them to our flower heads and arranged them in our vase. After their painting was completed, each child signed their first names only, just like Vincent. I think they are as gorgeous as the original. Click on any to get to our sunflower gallery.
