Vincent William vanGogh
December lesson Plan for Second Grade
Movement
Biographical information
Vincent van Gogh (van GO) was born in the Netherlands on March 30, 1853. When he was 27 years old, he taught himself how to paint. His brother, Theo, was an art dealer. He recognized Vincent's talent and encouraged him and supported him financially. He also introduced him to famous artists who influenced his early works.In the beginning of van Gogh’s career as an Artist, he used mainly earth tones, which gave his paintings a somber tone. However, as his art progressed, he used color and visible brushstrokes to reflect his inner vision and emotional state. By manipulating line, color, and spatial composition he was able to express his view of the world. Van Gogh’s art was an expression of his intellect and imagination, and is very emotional.
When van Gogh moved to the south of France he was inspired by the more intense light, which Van Gogh believed would help him see more truly and would more accurately depict his inner vision. Van Gogh developed his distinctive style in Provence, which included:
•exaggerated, intense color
•aggressive brushwork
•bold impasto paint application (thickly applied paint)
These techniques helped him show movement in paintings and sparked emotion. His painting, Starry Nightbecame very famous, but he felt that it was not realistic enough. A year earlier he had painted another starry sky picture, Starry Night Over the Rhone. Have any of you ever seen this painting? Direct student’s attention to picture, why do they think he didn’t see this picture as being real?
Van Gogh produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. Some say that during his lifetime he only sold one painting. It is a fact though that he would trade paintings for art supplies, and the dealers sold some of those paintings. He had no idea that he would become so famous, but after his death people began to appreciate his work. One of his paintings sold for $82.5 million. That's the most anyone has ever paid for a painting. His life ended sadly in 1890, when at the age of 37, he died from complications of his mental illness. Today, van Gogh is remembered for his landscapes, portraits, and sunflowers—which are among the world's most recognizable and expensive works of art.
Please direct the class’s attention to the tri-fold board and start the discussion section of this lesson.
Vocabulary Words
Movement – The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position.
Emotion - mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling: the emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love.
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing examples of van Gogh’s works of art.
Why do you think he uses the colors he does?
How do his brushstrokes show movement?
Does he use shapes to show movement? Which ones?
Do you see any sort of pattern that he seems to use in his paintings?
How do you think he was feeling when he painted this? What emotions?
Here are some questions to ask the students after they have completed their project. If time allows, they can even use their own works of art to answer the following.
Did they learn anything to help them show movement?
Why do you think you were asked to add something red? (To show life, give painting a realistic feel, make feel more personal.)
Did they like painting this way?
Basically a brief reflection on what they had created.
Winter Scene Painting
Materials: 12" x 18" blue construction paper (1 per person), black and brown oil pastels, white tempera paint, red tempura paint, small bowls for paint, paint brushes. When placing paint in bowls, please add a little water to the white paint. Please cover all tables and drying areas with newspaper.
Trifold board with artist examples
Demonstrate the lesson by following these step by step instructions, please remember to have the students put their name on the back of their paper and to roll up their sleeves. They may also want to wear their art smock.
Give each student a piece of blue paper a black pastel and a brown pastel. You can set up a few areas where the students can share the white and red paint. If you have enough volunteers, have someone demonstrate the lesson as the kids work through the steps.
- Draw a tree. Discuss how the trunk is thick on the bottom and as the tree grows and gets higher, the branches get small and thinner. Encourage the kids to think of the tree as an upside down "Y". Demonstrate how to add branches with the oil pastel, concentrating on making the branches narrower as they grow away from the trunk. Next, have the student's create "bark" by using either the black or brown oil pastel.
2. Add the snow. With a small paintbrush, have the students paint big swathes of white paint across the bottom of the paper, going right over the tree trunk. The kids can go up as high as they want, making sure that at least half of the tree is exposed. Next, have the student's paint small clumps of "snow" in the pockets of the tree branches.
3. Add a red highlight. Ask the kids to paint something red on their picture. It can be a scarf for a snowman, a red fox, a cardinal, whatever they want. Have the kids use their imaginations as much as possible.
4. Add the snowflakes. Carefully have the students add snowflakes by dipping their paintbrush into the white paint, then holding it about 2" above the painting, tap with a finger. This will give a random display of snowflakes.
Carefully move all paintings to drying area, clean and replace all supplies in bucket.