Vincent William van Gogh
December lesson Plan for First Grade
Landscape
Biographical information
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a Dutch painter known for his emotional and dramatic paintings. He was a minister’s son and although he was a talented artist from a very early age, he did not pursue art as a career until he was 30 years old. Van Gogh was very close with his brother, Theo. Theo encouraged him to become an artist and supported him financially. Van Gogh spent many years living in and around Paris, France. While living in France he met and studied with many talented, now famous artists.
Van Gogh communicated with his brother throughout his life through letters. It is through these letters that we have been able to learn his deep emotional connection to the people and places that surrounded him. Van Gogh is remembered for his landscapes, portraits, and sunflowers – which are among the world’s most recognizable and expensive works of art.
In van Gogh’s paintings he used very thick paint, which he applied with different tools directly to his canvass. This technique is called “impasto”. At the time, he was criticized for this technique and the speed at which he created paintings. However, today it is what makes his paintings come to life. It is believed that van Gogh produced over 3000 pieces of art in a ten-year period.
Van Gogh is mostly known for his use of color and the sense of movement he creates through his brushstrokes. He showed movement by using complimentary and contrasting colors next to each other in short brushstrokes. Sometimes he would place his brushstrokes close together and sometimes he would space them farther apart. By doing so he was able to make an area look more densely colored or give an illusion of light. Van Gogh would also curve his lines or draw them in a spiral design to show movement.
Please direct the class’s attention to the artist examples at the end of the document and start the discussion section of this lesson. The objective of this lesson is that the students can identify a painter’s style and understand how van Gogh used color and line to express emotion. After the discussion is finished, the students are going to use oil pastels to paint like van Gogh.
Vocabulary Words
Brushstroke – the paint left on the surface by the single application of a brush or palate knife.
Complimentary – The complementary color of a primary color (red, blue, or yellow) is the color you get by mixing the other two primary colors. So the complementary color of red is green, of blue is orange, and of yellow is purple.
Contrasting - Contrasting schemes use shades from opposite segments on the color wheel. Contrasting bold primary and secondary colors - red and green, yellow and violet, or blue and orange - will create a very dramatic look.
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. Use the painting Starry Night for the discussion.
Why do you think he uses the colors he does?
How do his brushstrokes show movement? (short, long, curvy, spiraling)
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?
What type of brushstrokes did they use to show movement?
Did they like painting this way?
Basically a brief reflection on what they had created.
Cityscape Drawing
Materials: black construction paper, white construction paper, oil pastels, watercolor sets with brushes, cups for water, paper towels, scissors, and glue stick. Students can use their own scissors and glue stick.
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.
1. Give each student a piece of black paper (half sheet that has been cut horizontally), piece of white paper, oil pastels, *water color set and cup with a small amount of water.
2. Have the students quickly draw a city skyline. (Volunteer Demonstrates)
3. Cut the city skyline out of the black paper and glue it on white paper matching the bottom edges of the paper.
4. Using oil pastels, add windows and doors to the buildings in the city skyline.
5. Using oil pastels, add a sky. Remind the students to use different brushstrokes with their oil pastels while completing their sky (short, long, close together, swirling, twisting, overlapping colors). This will help them show movement and evoke emotion. Did they add a sun, clouds, stars, and /or moon?
6. Once the picture is complete, have them paint over the oil pastels with blue watercolor paint to complete the sky.
*Please set up one area for painting. This will help alleviate spills and keep their desks clean. The painting portion will only take each student a minute or two.
Once finished, place paintings on newspapers for drying.
Vincent van Gogh
Starry Night, 1889
Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888