Thursday, March 29, 2012

2nd grade Van Gogh Sunflowers

2nd grade artists studied the art of Vincent Van Gogh. They noticed the unique brushstrokes that he used and how these brushstrokes did not look realistic, showed a sense of movement, and were not blended in the same way as other realistic artists of his time. They also noticed something unusual about color. Van Gogh used warm colors to make things stand out, and cold colors to make things recede (or chill out in the background).  
These artists created painted papers that showed the brushstrokes like Van Gogh and then ripped them up to create the pedals of the flowers. Next, they carefully blended chalk pastel to show light and shadow in the vase, pedals and stems.  What types of things do you think stand out the most in the artworks?





4 comments:

  1. just saw this lesson on Pinterest. These are beautiful! Your students did a great job!!!

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  2. I adore these! Is there any way that you could provide me with more of a step-by-step lesson plan? I'm a 2nd grade teacher, and we do a huge unit on Van Gogh. These are my favorite of all of the sunflower projects I've ever seen.

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  3. THANK YOU THANK YOU! They are certainly a favorite every time we make them. Basically, after introducing Van Gogh's life and art (especially his sunflowers), we look at the brushstrokes in his paintings and each child uses tempera paint to make "blended brushstrokes" like Van Gogh did. Each child makes a 9x12 red & orange paper and a 12x18 yellow and orange paper. These papers are used to rip up to make the inside and outside of the flowers later (ripping so that the white edge shows). The second day we talk about symmetry and cut and glue a cold colored vase to a black paper. Then we discuss value and shade the vase with chalk. We also use a cold color chalk to put a slight value in the background, and draw the leaves and stems with some coming in front of the vase (talking about the art element of space). Last comes the flower ripping and glueing. I hope this helps! Best wishes!

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  4. Yes, that explanation definitely helps. I can see each of the steps you described in the samples. It really helps to know the order/process you followed. Thank you for taking the time to explain this!

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